What Does DMA Mean In Computing?

In computing terms alone DMA can stand for a range of things. Most often it stands for direct memory access. It could also stand for Digital Media Adapter (in the sense of a multimedia player / HTPC); or Dynamic memory allocation; or Document Management Alliance; or even DMA Design which is the former name of a game developer, Rockstar North.

A Document Management Alliance refers to a specification which offers a common interface for users to access and to search document databases. The aim is to provide multivendor document management systems interoperability amongst themselves.

Direct memory access is included in most modern computers, which allows a computer's specific hardware subsystems to access the system memory for purposes of reading and/or writing autonomously, without the central processing unit. A number of hardware systems such as disk drive controllers, sound cards and graphics cards, use DMA.