Description of Ultra DMA (308541)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q308541
If this article does not describe your hardware-related issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about hardware:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/w98?sid=460

SUMMARY

This article describes Ultra DMA (Direct Memory Access).

MORE INFORMATION

Ultra DMA (also known as Ultra DMA/33 or ATA/33) is an extension of the ATA hard disk interface that theoretically allows burst data transfer rates of 33.3 megabytes (MB) per second. This is double the ATA-2/ATA-3 standard of 16.6 MB per second. Using Ultra DMA can result in a 40 percent increase in performance over the ATA-2/ATA-3 standard. The performance improvement is a result of the improved data rate of the drive itself.

System Requirements

  • A motherboard that has a chip set that supports Ultra DMA.
  • An Ultra DMA-compliant hard disk and controller.
  • An Ultra DMA device driver.
  • An Ultra DMA-compliant Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).

Using Ultra DMA

To use an Ultra DMA device, verify that your computer supports Ultra DMA, and then follow the manufacturer's instruction to install the Ultra DMA-based device.

To determine if your computer supports Ultra DMA-based devices, refer to the documentation included with your device, or contact the manufacturer of the Ultra DMA device.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:8/9/2006
Keywords:kbHardware kbinfo KB308541
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