Chapter 17: Direct Memory Access

Overview

Using direct memory access (DMA) for data transfers to or from a DMA-capable device has many advantages, including higher speed transfers and lower overall system CPU usage. The framework transparently handles much of the required work to implement DMA in a KMDF driver. Drivers are primarily responsible for specifying the capabilities of their device and initiating DMA operations.

This chapter describes the basic concepts and terminology used in writing DMA drivers for Windows. It also describes the details that you should know about the DMA implementation in a device before you start to write the driver.

 KMDF  The information in this chapter applies only to KMDF drivers for DMA-capable devices.

For this chapter, you need …	From …
Tools
Driver Verifier	Built into Windows
Samples
PLX9x5x sample	%wdk%\src\kmdf\Plx9x5x
WDK documentation
Handling DMA Operations in Framework-Based Drivers	http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=80073
DMA Verification (Driver Verifier)	http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=80070