1. For a computer system comprising one or more processes capable of operating in at least one of (i) a relatively less restricted kernel mode, and (ii) a relatively more restricted user mode, and a hardware adaptor that allows the one or more processes to communicate with at least one hardware device over a communication link, a method of allowing for a single implementation of one or more operations that are common to both kernel mode processing and user mode processing relative to the hardware adapter, the method comprising acts of: defining a common interface name for at least one operation that is common to kernel mode processing and user mode processing; providing a kernel mode implementation of the at least one operation that corresponds to the name; providing a user mode implementation of the at least one operation that corresponds to the name; and for a given process, mapping one or more common interface calls (i) to the kernel mode implementation if the given process is a kernel mode process, and (ii) to the user mode implementation if the given process is a user mode process.