Patent ID: 7770046

Claim:
An information-processing apparatus comprising: a time-retention unit for managing time information as well as acquiring and providing clocked time information in accordance with a request; a time-information acquisition unit for receiving a request for acquiring time information, outputting the request to the time-retention unit, and acquiring and outputting provided time information, the time-information acquisition unit acquires time information by executing a program stored in an associated memory; and a time-information request unit for outputting a request for acquiring time information to the time-acquisition unit in accordance with a request from a request source, acquiring time information output by the time-acquisition unit, and providing the acquired time information to the request source, wherein the time-retention unit, the time-information acquisition unit, and the time-information request unit are implemented in separated execution spaces wherein each of the separated execution spaces comprise a processor and a memory associated with the processor for carrying out respective functions, and data is exchanged between at least the time-retention unit and the time-information acquisition unit only upon mutual authentication between respective execution spaces.