(1) For the interface between hardware and software, see
hardware abstraction layer.
(2) (
Heuristic/
ALgorithmic) The name of the computer that took command of the spaceship in Stanley Kubrick's famous 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey." Although each letter in H-A-L precedes the letters I-B-M, the dominant computer company at that time, the HAL-IBM connection was supposedly a coincidence. See
IBM.