CDC allows you to develop applications for consumer electronic and embedded devices, such as smartphones, two-way pagers, PDAs, home appliances, point-of-sale terminals, and car navigation systems. These devices run a 32-bit microprocessor and have more than 2 MB of memory, which is needed to store the C virtual machine and libraries.

CDC runs on top of the C virtual machine (CVM), and it is associated with the Foundation Profile. The Foundation Profile (FNDp) is a set of Java APIs intended for higher-end devices requiring a custom user interface (UI), typically provided by a device manufacturer.