In the case of devices with a program-controlled circuit arrangement operating program instructions are necessary for their operation. In order to reduce the storage space necessary for this, in the case of devices which have a connection (6) to a data transmission network (7) in any case, the operating program instructions are not held in the device, but loaded via the data transmission network (7). For this purpose the circuit arrangement (1) has a start procedure memory (3), in which is stored a start procedure set up in such a way that for its execution a processor unit (2) connects up via the data transmission network (7) by means of the interface (6) to an operating program server and from this loads operating program instructions into a main memory (5) connected to the processor unit (2). The storage space required for the start procedure memory (3) can be further reduced, if the start procedure embedded in it is set up so that the processor unit (2) loads the instructions, which are necessary for connecting to the operating program server and for loading from this the operating program instructions, from a download procedure memory (4).