DMA

DMA may refer to any of the following:

1. DMA (direct memory access) is a feature of some computer bus architectures that allows data to be sent from a storage device to memory without using the CPU (central processing unit). Because DMA frees the processor from involvement in the transfer process, it tends to be faster than PIO (programmed input/output) mode.

2. With an ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus, DMA is channels used by communications devices, such as SCSI (small computer system interface), sound cards, and tape backup adapters. Below is a listing of the different channels and their availability.

Architecture, Bus mastering, Computer abbreviations, DMAC, Hardware conflict, Hardware terms, I/O port, IRQ, Memory terms, Resource, TLA, UDMA