Linux on a Digital Camera

The RDC-i700 is one of high specs digital camera of Ricoh. Its relatively big size, large amount of different interfaces, input methods (buttons, or touch panel), have made it a good candidate for prototyping the world first Linux embedded digital camera. This paper presents my experience of porting the 2.4 linux kernel to an existing digital camera. (the RDC-i700 is originally running VxWorks). Recently linux is running on a more and more wide range of different devices, however the digital camera field remains to be unexplored. The paper introduces how digital cameras differ from any other PC-like devices (PDA, HDD recorder ...) and what problems, such as timing or software design issues, have to be (have been) solved in order to get the world first linux digital camera running the linux 2.4 kernel.