The invention provides a method improving flexibility of at least one direct memory access (DMA) channel. The at least one DMA channel is used by a plurality of DMA engines of a first device to direct data transmission between the plurality of DMA engines of the first device and a second device. An explanatory embodiment of the method comprises: allowing any of a plurality of DMA engines to use any of the at least one DMA channels, and enabling some of the plurality of DMA engines to share a target channel if some of the plurality of DMA engines simultaneously compete for the target channel, one of the at least one DMA channel.