A program, usually in a separate I/O controller, that directs traffic on the computer bus or input/output paths. The bus master actually controls the bus paths on which the address and control signals flow. DMA is a simple form of bus mastering where the bus master controls I/O transfers between a device and system memory and then signals to the CPU when it has done so. See also "DMA".
A device that is capable of performing data transfers to and from the bus with little or no CPU intervention. This improves performance by freeing the CPU for other tasks.
A type of a plug-in board or controller with the ability to take control of the computer's data bus and perform reads and/or writes without requiring the use of the host CPU.
an intelligent device such as a PCI adapter card that can gain control of the bus and use it to transfer data without involving the processor.
A controller property, which allows a PCI device to take control over the PCI bus, so that data can be exchanged directly with RAM. CMOS. Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. Really a name for the process technology used, among other things, for CPU's. There is a CMOS storage chip on the motherboard which contains a database of information about the motherboard and the other hardware devices. CSA. Communication Streaming Architecture. An Intel design, where the Gigabit LAN controller plugs directly into the north bridge.
A device that controls data transfers between itself and a subordinate.
An I/O device that is capable of generating a sequence of bus operations - usually a series of memory reads or writes - independently, once programmed by software. See direct memory access.
Device that takes control of the bus.
A type of a plug-in board or controller with the ability to read and write devices on the computer bus, without using the host CPU.
A device on the Micro Channel bus that has its own built-in DMA controller instead of using the system-provided DMA controller. This allows the device to set up the DMA transfer itself instead of relying on the system software to set up the system DMA controller, giving the device greater flexibility in function and, in general, better system performance than a DMA slave device.