Abstract: A hardware abstraction interfacing system and method for providing an interface between hardware and application software in equipment having a layered architecture. The interfacing system includes a hardware profile structure having a plurality of hardware profile entities which correspond to the particular hardware components of the hardware. Each hardware profile entity includes address information and masking information for the corresponding hardware component. A searchable data structure stores a set of functional profile entities which include a reference that points to the address information of at least one of the hardware profile entities and a function supported by one or more hardware components. A profile engine is able to search the searchable data structure for a particular function called by the application software.