DMA
DMA (Direct Memory Access) is a hardware feature that allows peripherals or system components to transfer data directly to and from memory without involving the CPU for each data transfer. This offloads data movement tasks from the CPU, enabling it to perform other computations while data transfers occur in parallel. It is commonly used in systems requiring high-speed data transfers, such as disk drives, network cards, graphics cards, and audio interfaces.
Developers should learn about DMA when working on performance-critical applications, embedded systems, or device drivers where efficient data handling is essential. It reduces CPU overhead and latency, making it ideal for real-time systems, high-throughput networking, and multimedia processing. Understanding DMA is crucial for optimizing I/O operations and avoiding bottlenecks in resource-constrained environments.