The DMA controller requires one or two MCLK clock cycles to synchronize before every single transfer or complete block or burst-block transfer. Each byte/word transfer requires two MCLK cycles after synchronization, and one cycle of wait time after the transfer. Because the DMA controller uses MCLK, the DMA cycle time is dependent on the MSP430 operating mode and clock system setup.

If the MCLK source is active but the CPU is off, the DMA controller uses the MCLK source for each transfer, without reenabling the CPU. If the MCLK source is off, the DMA controller temporarily restarts MCLK, sourced with DCOCLK, for the single transfer or complete block or burst-block transfer. The CPU remains off and after the transfer completes, MCLK is turned off. The maximum DMA cycle time for all operating modes is shown in Table