How DMA Works under Windows 2000

Just as the Windows 2000 operating system abstracts all other pieces of system hardware, DMA operations also follow a strict abstract model. Drivers that perform DMA within the framework of this abstraction can ignore many of the hardware-specific aspects of the system platform. This section presents the major features of the Windows 2000 DMA framework.

Hiding DMA Hardware Variations with Adapter Objects

The purpose of using DMA is to minimize the CPU's involvement in data transfer operations. To do this, DMA devices use an auxiliary processor, called a DMA controller, to move data between memory and a peripheral device. This allows the CPU to continue doing other useful work in parallel with the I/O operation. ...

Get Windows® 2000 Device Driver Book: A Guide for Programmers, Second Edition, The now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.