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DMA (Direct Memory Access) does not actually interrupt the CPU - it requests control of the bus, so that it can perform the transfer itself. It becomes a bus-master. This is done using the HOLD and HLDA (Hold Acknowledge) control pins.

This is not the same thing as an interrupt, which is where an external device requests the CPU's attention, and the CPU goes off and performs some code to service that request. In the case of DMA, the CPU actually freezes for the few cycles that the DMA controller requires, which is much, much more efficient than using an interrupt service routine.

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Q: Why does DMA interrupt the CPU when ready to transfer?
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3 types of DMA transfer modes?

· Block transfer DMA controller takes the bus control by CPU. CPU has no access to bus until the transfer is complete. During this time CPU can perform internal operations that do not need bus. This is a common and popular method with modern microprocessors. · Cycle stealing This is a word-by-word transfer based on CPU cycle stealing. When DMA steals a cycle, CPU is stopped completely for one cycle. Cycle stealing is not an interrupt. CPU pauses for just one machine cycle. This type of transfer takes a period of time. Some major steps of DMA cycle stealing in order to transfer data to and form memory are: · DMA needs control of the CPU · DMA must use the bus only when the CPU does not need it · CPU is suspended by DMA just before it needs to use the bus · CPU pauses for one bus cycle · DMA transfers one words and then returns the control to CPU · The overall effect is to cause the CPU to execute more slowly · Interleaved DMA. It is similar to block transfer technique, here DMA controller takes the control of system bus only when CPU is not using it. For example, performing an ALU operation or incrementing a counter. The data transfer by this kind of method takes a period of time.


Generally which transfer mode is faster DMA or PIO?

DMA transfers data directly from the drive to memory without involving the CPU. PIO involves the CPU and is slower than DMA mode.


Why Direct memory access has priority over the CPU when both request a memory transfer?

we can transfer data direct to and from memory without the need of the CPU. The transfer of data between a fast storage device such as magnetic disk and memory is often limited by the speed of the CPU. Removing the CPU from the path and letting the peripheral device manager the memory buses directly would improve the speed of transfer. This transfer technique is called direct memory access(DMA). During DMA transfer, the CPU is idle and has no control of the memory buses. A DMA controller takes over the buses to manage the transfer directly between the I/O device and memory. With Regards. Veer Thakur. Chandigarh.


What transfer mode can transmit data from a device to memory without involving the CPU?

DMA transfer mode


What is the role of DMA controllers in microprocessor based systems?

A DMA (Direct Memory Access) controller is a device that can request control of the memory bus from the CPU, and then transfer data to or from memory without the support of the CPU. It is often used in high speed I/O, such as hard drives, because polled and interrupt modes incur too much overhead.


What is dma in detail?

Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU).Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed input/output, it is typically fully occupied for the entire duration of the read or write operation, and is thus unavailable to perform other work. With DMA, the CPU initiates the transfer, does other operations while the transfer is in progress, and receives an interrupt from the DMA controller when the operation is done. This feature is useful any time the CPU cannot keep up with the rate of data transfer, or where the CPU needs to perform useful work while waiting for a relatively slow I/O data transfer. Many hardware systems use DMA, including disk drive controllers, graphics cards, network cards and sound cards. DMA is also used for intra-chip data transfer in multi-core processors. Computers that have DMA channels can transfer data to and from devices with much less CPU overhead than computers without a DMA channel. Similarly, a processing element inside a multi-core processor can transfer data to and from its local memory without occupying its processor time, allowing computation and data transfer to proceed in parallel.DMA can also be used for "memory to memory" copying or moving of data within memory.


What is the advantage of DMA transfer?

DMA allows devices to communicate with each other directly, instead of relying on the CPU to manage the transfers. This frees the CPU up to do other tasks, and increases system performance.


Which transfer mode can transmit data from a device to memory without involving the cpu?

DMA


Does a DMA channel bypass the CPU?

Yes, DMA does bypass the CPU.


What is the two data transfer modes used in hard drives?

DMA (Direct Memory Access) or PIO (Programmed Input/Output) Transfer Modes. DMA transfers data to memory without use of the CPU. PIO involves CPU and is slower.ASCII & Binary


How does DMA module communicate with CPU?

DMA can communicate with CPU using Cycle stelaing process


Why DMA is high performing?

DMA (Direct Memory Access) has high performance because the CPU does not get involved in the transfer of the individual data bytes. The DMA hardware takes care of reading or writing the device, accessing and incrementing the memory pointer, writing or reading the memory, and detecting end of block. Each transfer then only takes one or two machine cycles, and the CPU can go and do something else.