What does hal stand for?

Answer 1

HAL stands for Windows' Hardware Abstraction Layer. The HAL implements a number of functions that are implemented in different ways by different hardware platforms, which in this context, refers mostly to the Chipset. Other components in the operating system can then call these functions in the same way on all platforms, without regard for the actual implementation. For example, responding to an interrupt is quite different on a machine with an Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) than on one without. The HAL abstracts such differences so that nothing outside the HAL need be concerned with them.