The term cycle stealing is used in context of:

2020

The term cycle stealing is used in context of:

Answer: C. DMA based data TransferCycle Stealing is a method used in Direct Memory Access (DMA) data transfer. In this mode, the DMA controller "steals" or borrows a bus cycle from the CPU to…

  1. A.

    Interrupt based data transfer

  2. B.

    Polling Mode Data Transfer

  3. C.

    DMA based data Transfer

  4. D.

    Clock cycle overriding

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Correct answer: C

Cycle Stealing is a method used in Direct Memory Access (DMA) data transfer. In this mode, the DMA controller "steals" or borrows a bus cycle from the CPU to transfer a single word of data.

  • Since the CPU and DMA controller share the same system bus, the DMA controller requests the CPU to pause its bus activity for one clock cycle.

  • The CPU suspends its operation for that specific cycle, allowing the DMA to transfer data directly between the I/O device and memory.

  • This is highly efficient because the CPU doesn't stop entirely; it just slows down slightly while data is transferred in the background.

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