DMA

E38930

DMA (Direct Memory Access) is a computer feature that allows hardware devices to transfer data directly to and from system memory without continuous CPU involvement, improving performance and efficiency.

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Observed surface forms (2)

Surface form Occurrences
DMA controller 1
Direct Memory Access 1

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf computer hardware feature
data transfer mechanism
abbreviationOf Direct Memory Access
allows asynchronous data transfer relative to CPU
appearedIn early minicomputers and mainframes
bypasses CPU data movement instructions
canCause cache coherency issues
memory contention
commonIn modern computer architectures
configuredBy device driver software
contrastedWith CPU-driven data transfer
controlledBy DMA controller hardware
enables direct data transfer between I/O devices and main memory
frees CPU for other tasks
fullName DMA self-linksurface differs
surface form: Direct Memory Access
hasComponent DMA self-linksurface differs
surface form: DMA controller
hasMode burst mode
cycle stealing mode
transparent mode
improves data transfer efficiency
system performance
operatesBetween I/O device and main memory
peripheral and RAM
reduces CPU involvement in data transfer
CPU overhead
relatedTo interrupts
programmed I/O
requires bus arbitration
hardware support in the system bus
memory address information
transfer direction information
transfer length information
supports block data transfers
burst transfers
scatter-gather transfers
single transfers
usedFor audio streaming
disk I/O
high-speed data acquisition
memory-to-memory copy operations
network packet transfer
video streaming
usedIn computer systems
disk controllers
embedded systems
graphics cards
microcontrollers
network interface controllers
sound cards

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

DMA fullName DMA self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Direct Memory Access
DMA hasComponent DMA self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: DMA controller
ATA supportsMode DMA