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	Hardware abstraction layer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is an abstraction layer, implemented in software, between the physical hardware of a computer and the software that runs on that computer.
		Its function is to hide differences in hardware from most of the operating system kernel, so that most of the kernel-mode code does not need to be changed to run on systems with different hardware.
		Hardware abstraction layers are of an even lower level in computer languages than application programming interfaces (API) because they interact directly with hardware instead of a system kernel, therefore HALs require less processing time than APIs.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Hardware_abstraction_layer (465 words)

	Abstraction Layer -- Recommendations and Resources (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is a layer between the physical hardware of a computer and the software that runs on that computer.
		Abstractions are sometimes used that have ambiguous referents, for example, "happiness" used as an abstraction, can refer to as many things as there are people and events or states of being which make them happy.
		Abstraction uses a strategy of simplification of detail, wherein formerly concrete details are left ambiguous, vague, or undefined; thus speaking of things in the abstract demands that the listener have an intuitive or common experience with the speaker, if the speaker expects to be understood (as in ''picture 1'', to the right).
	www.becomingapediatrician.com /health/1/abstraction-layer.html (699 words)

	Hardware abstraction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Hardware abstractions are sets of routines in software that emulate some platform-specific details, giving programs direct access to the hardware resources.
		They often allow programmers to write device-independent, high performance applications by avoiding standard Operating System calls to hardware.
		This page was last modified 01:29, 26 November 2005.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Hardware_abstraction (71 words)

	hardware abstraction layer - a definition from Whatis.com
		1) In computers, a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) is a layer of programming that allows a computer operating system to interact with a hardware device at a general or abstract level rather than at a detailed hardware level.
		Windows 2000 is one of several operating systems that include a hardware abstraction layer.
		The hardware abstraction layer can be called from either the operating system's kernel or from a device driver.
	whatis.techtarget.com /definition/0,,sid9_gci214424,00.html (168 words)

	Abstracting device-driver development
		Rapid advancements in hardware development also make "time to market" critical as the original setup could become obsolete before the designer is even finished with the project, forcing a rewrite of applications and drivers and the eventual management of different versions of code.
		Abstraction layers enable a device driver to interact with a hardware device at a general, or abstract, level rather than at a detailed hardware level.
		With the abstraction layer, only the abstraction layer itself is ported to the BSP and it only needs to be done a single time to support all the I/O cards.
	www.embedded.com /shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=18900788 (2141 words)

	Hardware/Software Co-Verification with RTOS Application Code
		Hardware/Software Co-Verification is typically performed at a low level of abstraction, using an Instruction Set Simulation (ISS) model of a CPU in conjunction with a Verilog or VHDL model of the rest of the design.
		At this level of abstraction, it is possible to observe the threads of execution and how these threads interact with the hardware.
		Tasks are written to configure hardware registers and then read the status registers to ensure the hardware is in the proper state.
	www.techonline.com /community/home/21082?print (2204 words)

	Hardware/Software Co-Verification with RTOS Application Code
		One solution to accurate hardware/software verification is to use the ISS of the target CPU and "connect" it to the hardware simulator being used by the hardware design group.
		At this level of abstraction, it is possible to observe the threads of execution, and how they interact with the hardware.
		Several abstraction layer versions were created in order to support different environments: CPU evaluation board, the Seamless/VxSim environment, and the final hardware.
	www.mentor.com /products/fv/hwsw_coverification/seamless/success/hyperchip_css.cfm?redironce=1& (2132 words)

	Using dynamic run-time scheduling to improve the price-performance-power efficiency of heterogeneous multicore SoCs
		Having established the benefits of such an abstraction the runtime performance is then explored using a traditional software implementation and then through an innovative client-server operational model implemented in silicon as an IP core.
		The abstraction also enables the number of active cores to be matched dynamically to the presented load, hence power can be efficiently managed at runtime.
		In contrast a hardware assisted abstraction layer, using the SystemWeaver IP core, matches the benefits of the abstraction layer with runtime efficiency.
	www.us.design-reuse.com /articles/article13179.html (2977 words)

	Iyonix: Hardware Abstraction Layer
		It is important to place the dividing line as close to the hardware as possible, to make it easy to design a HAL and to prevent large amounts of code duplication between HALs for different platforms.
		Making hardware calls to devices normally managed by the Kernel is liable to cause the same problems as poking the hardware.
		This may not be possible on some hardware, so the corresponding interrupt should be masked in addition to calling this function with period 0.
	www.iyonix.com /32bit/HAL.shtml (1716 words)

	Hardware
		For some time I've been advocating a "hardware abstraction layer." This layer is simply an interface that makes it possible to add support for new devices and new ways of connecting devices to the computer, without modifying every application that uses the device.
		This is the primary task of the hardware abstraction library.
		This is the secondary task of the hardware abstraction library.
	ometer.com /hardware.html (2597 words)

	The Common Man's Guide to Operating System Design: Architecture (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		Hardware abstraction is a process of simplification and information hiding.
		It's part of the abstraction process to try to find an abstraction that's relatively simple, yet can still express a reasonable amount of flexibility in both the hardware that can be abstracted and the use of the hardware.
		In a microkernel design, as much abstraction and resource management code as possible is moved outside of the kernel in the interests of modularity.
	cdsmith.twu.net /professional/osdesign/ch01.html (3411 words)

	Glossary Search Results
		Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) - The portion of the operating system that lets programs deal with hardware directly.
		Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) - A list of computers and peripherals that have been tested by Microsoft to work with Windows NT or Windows 2000.
		Hardware Emulation Layer (HEL) - This provides software-based emulation of features that are not directly available in hardware.
	geek.com /glossary/glossary_search.cgi?hardware (258 words)

	E115: Online Text - Chapter 2
		Most modern kernels, like those used in Windows XP or Mac OS X, implement a level of hardware abstraction, or a set of instructions that are universal to all devices of a certain type.
		The hardware abstraction, provides a clean interface to the hardware and helps eliminate complexity.
		This hardware abstraction layer of the kernel depends on software drivers that provide detailed instructions for a given brand/model of device (see Device Drivers).
	www.eos.ncsu.edu /e115/online_text/2/kernel (227 words)

	OSNews.com
		Over the course of this exchange, you've demonstrated that you don't know much about operating systems other than linux, that you're not at all familiar with what the term hardware abstraction layer means to an OS designer, that you can't even keep track of the points you've introduced, and now you're starting to post rudeness.
		The comments about code duplication were clearly in a portion of the discussion related to the lack of abstraction in the linux kernel, not to the comment about the x86 model.
		Now I shall dare you: admit that Linux is not the most ported operating system; that it lacks hardware abstraction layers; and that the PCI "generic bus" and the ACPI-derived power management model are examples of how Linux continues to be ported by imposing a PC like model onto other architectures.
	osnews.com /comment.php?news_id=14353&offset=120&rows=135&threshold=-1 (3812 words)

	Smart Computing Encyclopedia Entry - hardware abstraction layer (HAL) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		Computers would be slow in development if their OSes (operating systems) had to interact with each piece of hardware directly.
		It is a layer of software present in many computer OSes that deals directly with computer hardware and lets the two work on a general, or abstract, level.
		It serves as a translator between the hardware device (such as a video card) and the rest of the computer’s workings, including the applications (such as Media Player).
	www.smartcomputing.com /editorial/dictionary/detail.asp?searchtype=2&DicID=17545&RefType=Encyclopedia&guid= (253 words)

	Windows NT Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
		The Windows NT hardware abstraction layer (HAL) refers to a layer of software that deals directly with your computer hardware.
		Because the HAL operates at a level between the hardware and the Windows NT executive services, applications and device drivers need not be aware of any hardware-specific information.
		Applications and device drivers are no longer allowed to deal with hardware directly and must make calls to HAL routines to determine hardware specific information.
	support.microsoft.com /default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;99588 (185 words)

	SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS)
		This effort is to develop a hardware abstraction language to be used by different ISSs (e.g., Iliad, Vista, OMEGA, etc.).
		Develop a hardware abstraction of commands, parameters, and attributes of different instrumentation devices.
		DUAL USE COMMERCIALIZATION: The hardware abstraction language and translator software technology can be used to significantly reduce the lifecycle cost of ISS for diverse T&E applications, data collection and monitoring systems.
	www.dodsbir.net /sitis/archives_display_topic.asp?Bookmark=20146 (830 words)

	Hardware Abstraction and Emulation (Windows CE .NET Application Development) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		DirectSound accesses the sound hardware through the DirectSound hardware abstraction layer (HAL), an interface that is implemented by the audio device driver.
		If the hardware cannot perform a requested operation, the device driver reports failure of the request and DirectSound emulates the operation.
		However, for you to make the best possible use of the available hardware resources, you can query DirectSound at run time (by using the various GetCaps methods) to receive a full description of the capabilities of the sound device, and then use different routines optimized for the presence or absence of a given feature.
	msdn.microsoft.com /library/en-us/wcedsoun/html/_dxce_Hardware_Abstraction_and_Emulation_dsound.asp?frame=true (311 words)

	Wikiversity:School of Computer Science/OperatingSystems - Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooks
		When a computer is turned on, the OS is loaded into memory and works as an abstraction layer between the physical hardware and the software.
		The function of a boot loader, whether a boot ROM or a Unix boot loader such as uboot or grub, is to initialize the hardware, set boot parameters, load a kernel image into RAM, and pass control of the hardware to the loaded kernel image.
		The alternative is to use virtual memory, in which a combination of special hardware and operating system software makes use of both kinds of memory to make it look as if the computer has a much larger main memory than it actually does.
	en.wikibooks.org /wiki/Wikiversity:School_of_Computer_Science/OperatingSystems (1482 words)

	ADASS 2003 Conference Proceedings
		In this domain, ACS provides a generic abstraction of hardware control and monitor points that is independent of the software underneath.
		This abstraction layer is coupled to the hardware using the DevIO (Device Input/Output) interface, based on the Bridge design pattern.
		Properties - high-level abstraction of control/monitor points - provide the application with facilities to monitor and retrieve values from monitor points (get_sync, get_async), and to set the value of control points (set_sync, set_async), or to handle periodic telemetry logging and alarms.
	www.adass.org /adass/proceedings/adass03/D8 (1335 words)

	Design of the NIST DASE Simulation Environment\\ (version 0.9c) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		The Hardware Abstraction layer merges ATSC tables (providing a single view across all of the tables), and provides the API implementation access to the data in a convenient format.
		When a port is done, the HW abstraction classes will need to change the low-level access to the data, but their public interfaces classes will not change.
		The hardware abstraction is responsible for merging all of the data into a single view based on the needs of the DASE API.
	www.itl.nist.gov /div895/cmr/dase/docs/DASE_simul.html (2600 words)

	Halfbakery: OS Abstraction Layer
		That grouping of utility functions is sometimes known as the "Hardware Abstraction Layer".
		When the Abstraction Layer is installed on some Operating System, even something high-end like Unix, the nature of that OS would be fully known to the AL.
		Also, the GDI abstraction works for the printer as well as the screen, which simplifies printing immensely - all of the functions that you would call to write to the screen work equivalently for the printer.
	www.halfbakery.com /lr/idea/OS_20Abstraction_20Layer (1282 words)

	Hardware Abstraction of Middleware
		PRG researchers have developed a software abstraction of a hardware switch matrix (or any other hardware interface structure) that greatly improves the efficiency of software radios that meet the military standard software communications architecture (SCA).
		The new approach reduces the middleware bottleneck by enabling different hardware components of the radio to communicate directly.
		The hardware abstraction of middleware is expected to enable lightweight, or low power, receivers that are fully compliant with the SCA.
	www.ecpe.vt.edu /news/ar04/middleware.html (157 words)

	Hardware Abstraction Layers: Some Clarification - Short-Media Forums
		I've been doing a bit of reading on Hardware Abstraction Layers (HAL), but am left with a few unanswered issues which have arisen.
		From what I read, most all sources state that ACPI should be used for WinXP systems and the "Standard PC" (Which uses PCI Steering?) option for Win2000.
		It seems logical to me that since PCI Steering allows hardware a reserved IRQ, and not a single shared IRQ, it would be a superior choice for performance.
	www.short-media.com /forum/showthread.php?t=11529 (270 words)

	Core Audio Technologies
		Use the Apple provided Audio Units: reverb, sample rate converter, equalizer, etc. Finally, if dealing with the complexities of audio hardware is not on your development schedule, the Default Output Audio Unit provides a nice and flexible way to easily integrate the Audio HAL capabilities in your application.
		The Audio HAL is the interface between application developers and the hardware; it allows for easy manipulation of devices through both an Input/Output procedure for streaming, and a property mechanism for control.
		If all that is not enough, and you have a very special piece of hardware, you can always explore the Darwin website and take inspiration of our work...or better, subclass it.
	developer.apple.com /audio/coreaudio.html (658 words)

	About Device Types (Windows CE .NET Application Development) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		Microsoft® Direct3D® currently supports a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) device and a reference device, also known as a reference rasterizer.
		The Direct3D device that an application creates must correspond to the capabilities of the hardware on which the application is running.
		Direct3D provides rendering capabilities, either by accessing 3-D hardware that is installed in the computer or by emulating the capabilities of 3-D hardware in software.
	msdn.microsoft.com /library/en-us/wced3d/html/_wcesdk_dx3d_About_Device_Types.asp?frame=true (310 words)

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