What's the difference between PIO mode and DMA mode..

[The Stigenator]

I am running W2K and had no problems setting the burner on DMA.. but what's the difference.. I know DMA is Direct Access Memory which bypasses the CPU to retrive data by itself.

The reason is I didnt notice anything different before and after changing from PIO to DMA.

 

[MadRat]

You should notice about 30% difference in CPU utilization. The transfer rate of PIO Mode4 is equal to UDMA Mode2.

 

[MWink]

PIO VS DMA: lower CPU usage
PIO VS UDMA: lower CPU usage + higher transfer rates