1. A method for generating program overlays from a sequence of program code, each overlay having a set of code and related data contained therein, the overlays being transferred via an overlay manager from a storage area to a receiving area for processing, the method comprising the steps of: (a) breaking the sequence of program code into a set of segments, wherein each segment contains a certain amount of related code for processing; (b) running a code segment in the set through a linker device; (c) extracting the code segment and related data segment produced by the linker device, with each associated pair of code and data segments representing an overlay; (d) checking if more segments exist in the set, if yes, then return to step (b), else proceed to step (e); and (e) concatenating the overlays into a file which can be referenced by the overlay manager.