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**Video Poker, Keno, Slots, 21** Gaming machines => Bally Alpha (Cinevision), and ALL Bally "V___" series - V5000, V2000, V1000, etc. => Topic started by: Hertz14 on January 12, 2021, 07:34:47 AM

Title: DMA acronym
Post by: Hertz14 on January 12, 2021, 07:34:47 AM

Noticed DMA on some game file descriptions. I’m guessing it’s Direct Memory Access. Anyone know the definition and usage of such file types?


Did a search for DMA and didn’t get many results.

Title: Re: DMA acronym
Post by: hemiroid on January 12, 2021, 09:10:40 AM

Quote from: Hertz14 on January 12, 2021, 07:34:47 AM

Noticed DMA on some game file descriptions. I’m guessing it’s Direct Memory Access. Anyone know the definition and usage of such file types?
Did a search for DMA and didn’t get many results.

This is the DMA in question...

Title: Re: DMA acronym
Post by: rickhunter on January 12, 2021, 10:48:57 AM

DMA in storage refers to the way the computer system's bus moves data in and out of the storage device.  A DMA transfer does not involve the CPU moving the data, thus enabling the cpu to do other things while the data is being transferred to memory, a controller takes care of that and does it a lot faster than a cpu would.  So the short answer, it just loads faster than PIO (Programmed I/O a cpu based tranfer).

Title: Re: DMA acronym
Post by: Hertz14 on January 12, 2021, 10:54:48 AM

Rickhunter- figures you were the one to know... It seems your knowledge knows no bounds!