Article ID: 308541 - Last Review: August 9, 2006 - Revision: 2.1

Description of Ultra DMA

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SUMMARY

This article describes Ultra DMA (Direct Memory Access).
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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.
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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).
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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.
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APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
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Keywords: 
kbfaq kbhardware kbinfo KB308541
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