Hi all

Dont worry, this one shouldnt be a brain frizzler like the last one

Righto: DMA

Direct Memory Access. The way I understand it, this 'feature' lets devices access the memory directly, without going through the CPU, therefore reducing workload on the CPuU and letting devices access the memory resources quicker...

Question is, does it really bypass the CPU completely? I thought EVERYTHING had to go through the CPU...

Here's my theory. Is it that DMA simply 'reserves' a portion of the memery for that device, so that when that devices needs to, it just says to the CPU 'I need to access this address range' instead of 'allocate me a memory range'...thereby making it quicker and less stressful but not bypassin the CPU completely?

Or is it that simply the device talks with the memory controller directly??

Sorry guys, and thanks

Hong