| comp., MS | hardware abstraction layer | Hardware Abstraction Layer (A thin layer of software provided by the hardware manufacturer that hides, or abstracts, hardware differences from higher layers of the operating system. By means of the filter provided by the HAL, different types of hardware look alike to the rest of the operating system. This enables the operating system to be portable from one hardware platform to another. The HAL also provides routines that enable a single device driver to support the same device on all platforms) |