A universal DMA (Direct Memory Access) engine can be dynamically configured to function in either a receive or transmit mode. DMAs are logically assembled and bound as needed, without limitation to a fixed, pre-determined number of receive engines and transmit engines. Because a DMA engine may be dynamically assembled to support the flow of data in either direction, varied usage models are enabled, and components used to assemble a receive DMA engine for one application may be subsequently used to assemble a transmit engine for a different application. An application may request a specific number of each type of engine, depending on the nature of its input/output traffic. The number of receive or transmit engines can be dynamically increased or decreased without suspending or rebooting the host. A universal DMA architecture provides a unified software framework, thereby decreasing the complexity of the software and the hardware gate count cost.