What is hal short for?

HAL stands for "Hardware Abstraction Layer." It is a software component that allows software programs to interact with computer hardware without the need to know specific details about the hardware itself. HAL provides a uniform interface for accessing hardware resources such as memory, CPU, input/output devices, and peripherals. This helps to simplify the development of software applications and makes it easier to port applications to different hardware platforms. HAL is commonly used in operating systems to provide a consistent hardware interface for system drivers and applications.