On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 22:47 -0400, Drew Weaver wrote:
> Good luck getting a hw raid vendor (other than 3ware) to help you :-)
FRAID is _not_ hardware RAID. There is *0* hardware on-board. It's a
100% "dumb" ATA controller, with a trick BIOS for 16-bit Int13h disk
services, and then a trick driver for the OS that has 100% of the RAID
logic. It uses your CPU for 100% of the activity -- even when you are
targeting the volume, the raw drives are still visible by the OS.
3Ware _is_ a true, intelligent hardware RAID -- on-board ASIC + SRAM.
>From the standpoint of your CPU, it's just sending a stream of data to
the ASIC, not the drives. It can't even see the drive or communicate
with them. This is a _core_ difference between FRAID and intelligent
hardware RAID.
--
Bryan J. Smith b.j.smith@xxxxxxxx http://thebs413.blogspot.com
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