Functional Description
®
5.16.6
Intel Matrix Storage Technology Configuration
The Intel® Matrix Storage Technology offers several diverse options for RAID
(redundant array of independent disks) to meet the needs of the end user. AHCI
support provides higher performance and alleviates disk bottlenecks by taking
advantage of the independent DMA engines that each SATA port offers in ICH10.
• RAID Level 0 performance scaling up to 4 drives, enabling higher throughput for
data intensive applications such as video editing.
• Data security is offered through RAID Level 1, which performs mirroring.
• RAID Level 10 provides high levels of storage performance with data protection,
combining the fault-tolerance of RAID Level 1 with the performance of RAID Level
0. By striping RAID Level 1 segments, high I/O rates can be achieved on systems
that require both performance and fault-tolerance. RAID Level 10 requires 4 hard
drives, and provides the capacity of two drives.
• RAID Level 5 provides highly efficient storage while maintaining fault-tolerance on
3 or more drives. By striping parity, and rotating it across all disks, fault tolerance
of any single drive is achieved while only consuming 1 drive worth of capacity. That
is, a 3 drive RAID 5 has the capacity of 2 drives, or a 4 drive RAID 5 has the
capacity of 3 drives. RAID 5 has high read transaction rates, with a medium write
rate. RAID 5 is well suited for applications that require high amounts of storage
while maintaining fault tolerance.
By using the ICH10’s built-in Intel Matrix Storage Technology, there is no loss of PCI
resources (request/grant pair) or add-in card slot.
Intel Matrix Storage Technology functionality requires the following items:
1. ICH10 component enabled for Intel Matrix Storage Technology (see Section 1.3)
2. Intel Matrix Storage Manager RAID Option ROM must be on the platform
3. Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers, most recent revision.
4. At least two SATA hard disk drives (minimum depends on RAID configuration).
Intel Matrix Storage Technology is not available in the following configurations:
1. The SATA controller is in compatible mode.
®
5.16.6.1
Intel Matrix Storage Manager RAID Option ROM
The Intel Matrix Storage Manager RAID Option ROM is a standard PnP Option ROM that
is easily integrated into any System BIOS. When in place, it provides the following
three primary functions:
• Provides a text mode user interface that allows the user to manage the RAID
configuration on the system in a pre-operating system environment. Its feature set
is kept simple to keep size to a minimum, but allows the user to create & delete
RAID volumes and select recovery options when problems occur.
• Provides boot support when using a RAID volume as a boot disk. It does this by
providing Int13 services when a RAID volume needs to be accessed by DOS
applications (such as NTLDR) and by exporting the RAID volumes to the System
BIOS for selection in the boot order.
• At each boot up, provides the user with a status of the RAID volumes and the
option to enter the user interface by pressing CTRL-I.
180
Datasheet
INTEL [ INTEL ]
