19.2. Background

A dual-ported memory area (DPMA) is an contiguous block of RAM owned by a particular processor but which can be accessed by other processors in the system. The owner accesses the memory using internal addresses, while other processors must use external addresses. RTEMS defines a port as a particular mapping of internal and external addresses.

There are two system configurations in which dual-ported memory is commonly found. The first is tightly-coupled multiprocessor computer systems where the dual-ported memory is shared between all nodes and is used for inter-node communication. The second configuration is computer systems with intelligent peripheral controllers. These controllers typically utilize the DPMA for high-performance data transfers.