application binary interface (ABI)
Application Binary Interfaces (ABI) are interfaces between application programs and operating systems, between applications and their libraries, or between components of an application program.
ABI specifications are used to describe interfaces between operating systems and special hardware platforms.
The Application Binary Interface consists of the programming interface( API) and the machine language for a special processor family. It differs from the Application Programming Interface (API) in that the programming interface describes the interface between the machine code and the libraries so that the same source code can be compiled on all systems, whereas with the Application Binary Interface compiled object codes work without changes on all systems with compatible ABIs.