Patent ID: 7478389

Claim:
A small footprint device comprising: at least one processing element configured to execute each group of groups of one or more program modules in a different context, said one or more program modules comprising zero or more sets of executable instructions and zero or more sets of data definitions, said zero or more sets of executable instructions and said zero or more data definitions grouped as object definitions, wherein each of said different contexts is included in a runtime environment and further wherein said runtime environment includes a virtual machine and an operating system where said each of said different contexts is removed from and over said virtual machine and said operating system; a memory comprising instances of objects; and a context barrier, in said runtime environment and removed from and over said virtual machine and said operating system, for separating and isolating said contexts wherein each different context owns at least one group of said groups associated with said different context and further wherein said each context comprises a protected object instance space such that at least one of said object definitions is instantiated in association with that context, said context barrier configured for controlling execution of at least one instruction of one of said zero or more sets of executable instructions of a program module based at least in part on whether said at least one instruction is executed for an object instance associated with a first context and whether said at least one instruction is requesting access to an instance of an object definition associated with a second context different from said first context, said context barrier further configured to prevent said access if said access is unauthorized and enable said access if said access is authorized.