(1) (Hardware Abstraction Layer) An interface between the hardware and the software. An operating system is essentially a hardware abstraction layer; however, a HAL implies an additional layer between the OS and the hardware. It is used to enable the operating system to be ported to new hardware platforms by writing a new abstraction layer. In practice, parts of the kernel may always have to be optimized in order to support new hardware as efficiently as possible.
An abstraction layer was built into Windows NT and its 2000 and XP offspring. The Windows DirectX APIs call the HAL layer directly.
(2) (Heuristic/ALgorithmic) The name of the computer in Stanley Kubrick's famous film "2001," which takes over command of the spaceship. Each of the letters in H-A-L precede the letters I-B-M. In 1968, when the movie was released, IBM controlled almost every aspect of the computer business; however, the IBM name connection was supposedly a coincidence.
|
