Question 561 – DMA

Direct memory access (DMA) is a method that allows an input/output (I/O) device to send or receive data directly to or from the main memory, bypassing the CPU to speed up memory operations.
DMA transfers can transfer either one byte at a time or all at once in burst mode. If they transfer a byte at a time, this can allow the CPU to access memory on alternating bus cycles – this is called cycle stealing since the CPU and either the DMA controller or the bus master contend for memory access.
In burst mode DMA, the CPU can be put on hold while the DMA transfer occurs and a full block of possibly hundreds or thousands of bytes can be moved.