Definitions for "Bus Mastering"
Keywords:  pci, dma, cpu, bus, peripheral
A device that when attached to the PCI bus can bid for and gain control of the bus to perform it's specific task.
A high-performance way to transfer data. The host bus adapter controls the transfer of data directly to and from system memory without bothering the computer's microprocessor. This is the fastest way for multi-tasking operating systems to transfer data.
allows peripheral devices and IDEs to access the system memory without going through the CPU (similar to DMA channels). [] cache is a temporary, fast storage area that holds data from a slower storage device for quick access as needed by an application. Access time is fast using a cache, because the needed information is stored in the SRAM instead of in the slower DRAM. Note that the cache is also much smaller than your regular memory: a typical cache size is 512KB, while you may have as much as 2GB of regular memory.
Keywords:  hardware
Hardware