What do you mean by cycle stealing

Question

What do you mean by cycle stealing? Describe in brief.

Answer 1

We encounter cycle stealing in the context of the DMA (Direct Memory Access). Either the DMA controller can utilize the data bus if the CPU doesn’t require it, or it might force the CPU to temporarily suspend operation. The latter method is termed as cycle stealing. Note that the cycle stealing can be completed only at specific break points in the instruction cycle.