(1) An interface between hardware and software. See
hardware abstraction layer.
(2) (
Heuristic/
ALgorithmic) The name of the computer that took over command of the spaceship in Stanley Kubrick's famous film "2001: A Space Odyssey." Each letter in H-A-L precedes the letters I-B-M. When the movie was released in 1968, IBM controlled almost every aspect of the computer industry; however, the HAL-IBM connection was supposedly a coincidence.