What Does Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) Mean?
A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is a logical division of code that serves as an abstraction layer between a computer’s physical hardware and its software. It provides a device driver interface allowing a program to communicate with the hardware.The main purpose of a HAL is to conceal different hardware architectures from the OS by providing a uniform interface to the system peripherals.
Techopedia Explains Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
A hardware abstraction layer is included in many OSs to avoid modifying the OS kernel to run the program on computers with varying hardware architecture. A PC may include the HAL in the OS kernel or in the form of device drivers that provide a consistent interface for applications to interact with the hardware peripherals. The HAL provides the following benefits:
