OpenCOM v2 is our experimental language-independent component-based systems-building technology. OpenCOM offers more than merely a component-based programming model. First, it is a runtime component model and supports dynamic runtime reconfiguration of systems (i.e. one can load, unload, bind, and rebind components at runtime). Second, it explicitly supports the deployment of the model in a wide range of ‘deployment environments’ (e.g. operating systems, PDAs, embedded devices, network processors). Third, it allows the particularities of different deployment environments to be selectively hidden from/ made visible to the OpenCOM programmer without inherent performance overhead.