HAL

1. computer HAL 9000, the murdering computer on the

spaceship in the science fiction classic "2001, A Space

Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clark.

"HAL" is "IBM" with each letter changed to the one before

and there is an unconfirmed rumour that 9000 is the sum of the

various IBM computer numbers that were in service at the time.

However, in the sequel "2010", Clarke emphatically denies that

HAL's name is supposed to be "one step ahead of IBM". It is,

rather, short for "heuristic algorithm".

2. operating system Hardware Abstraction Layer.

(1995-11-09)