Posts tagged DMA
Synonyms: direct-memory-access DMA-controller direct-memory-access-controller
DMA is a set of techniques to access the memory of a digital microprocessor system that doesn't involve the CPU itself. The access is done through a so-called DMA controller, which can take control of the bus and direct the transfer of data from memory to another memory area or to a peripheral connected to that bus.
While the DMA controlle operates, the CPU is free to do other tasks, thus increasing computation efficiency.
The DMA controller is a dedicated processor specially designed to perform data transfers on the bus, bypassing normal CPU control.
Usually the CPU instructs the DMA controller to perform a transfer and then relinquish the bus, letting the DMA controller do its business.
Therefore the CPU is free to do other tasks that don't need bus access while the DMA performs the transfer.
This is a form of hardware parallelism that can increase the performance of a system, sometimes dramatically in applications that require moving huge amounts of data.
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