INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH INTEL
ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT. EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN
INTEL’S TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE FOR SUCH PRODUCTS, INTEL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER, AND INTEL
DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, RELATING TO SALE AND/OR USE OF INTEL PRODUCTS INCLUDING LIABILITY OR
WARRANTIES RELATING TO FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY, OR INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT,
COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT. Intel products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life sustaining
applications.
Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice.
Designers must not rely on the absence or characteristics of any features or instructions marked "reserved" or "undefined." Intel reserves these for
future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to them.
The Intel® Application Accelerator may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published
specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.
Contact your local Intel sales office or your distributor to obtain the latest specifications and before placing your product order.
Table 1. Serial ATA Transfer Rates Associated With Transfer Modes ............................83
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6 User's Manual
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Revision History
Revision
Number
1.0 Initial Release. March 20, 2003
1.1 Added RAID 1 and Windows* 2000 information July 3, 2003
Description Revision Date
Document Conventions
Throughout this document, symbols are used to indicate important messages to the reader. These
are marked as note, important note, caution or warning.
Note: Note and Important Note: Means reader take note. Notes can also contain helpful suggestions
or references.
Caution: Caution: This symbol means reader be careful.
Warning: Warning: Not following these instructions might render the system unusable. Certain functions
may also have consequences that you need to be aware of.
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8 User's Manual
Scope of This Document
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1 Scope of This Document
This document discusses how to properly configure your system when using the Intel®
Application Accelerator RAID Edition.
The issues discussed in this guide are only relevant on systems implementing a RAID solution
and using a supported Intel chipset and supported operating system.
Please note that the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition does NOT support Beta or prereleased versions of any Windows* operating systems.
The majority of the issues contained in this document are related to either software configuration
or hardware integration. Intel is not responsible for the software written by third party vendors or
the implementation of Intel components in the products of third party manufacturers.
Customers should always contact the place of purchase or system/software manufacturer with
support questions about their specific hardware or software configuration.
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Scope of This Document
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10 User's Manual
RAID Background
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2 RAID Background
RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) was originally conceived at the University of
California at Berkeley in 1987 by David A. Patterson, Garth Gibson, and Randy H. Katz. The
focus of their research was to improve storage subsystem performance and reliability. As a result
of their findings, they proposed five levels of RAID (RAID 0 – RAID 5) to provide a balance of
performance and data protection. Each RAID level is designed for speed, data protection, or a
combination of both. Patterson, Gibson, and Katz published their findings in a document titled “A
Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID).” This document
University of California, Berkeley:
RAID was designed to improve the way computers manage and access mass storage of data by
providing an independent and redundant system of disks. Instead of writing to one Single Large
Expensive Disk (SLED), RAID writes to multiple independent disks.
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RAID Background
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12 User's Manual
RAID 0 (Striping)
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3 RAID 0 (Striping)
RAID 0 leverages the read/write capabilities of two or more hard drives working in unison to
maximize the storage performance of a computer system. Data in a RAID 0 array is arranged into
blocks that are interleaved among the disks so that reads and writes can be performed in parallel
(see below diagram). This technique, known as “striping”, is the fastest of all of the RAID levels,
especially for reading and writing large sequential files. Real world usage models where RAID 0
can be of particular benefit include loading large files into an image editing application such as
Adobe* Photoshop*, saving large movie files in a video editing application such as Adobe*
Premiere*, or creating CD or DVD images with a CD/DVD authoring package such as Roxio*
Easy CD Creator*.
The hard drives in a RAID 0 array are combined to form one volume which appears as a single
virtual drive to the operating system. For example, two 40 GB hard drives in a RAID 0 array will
appear as a single 80 GB hard drive to the operating system.
No redundancy information is stored in a RAID 0 array. This means that if one hard drive fails,
all data on both drives is lost. This lack of redundancy is also reflected by the RAID level 0,
which indicates no redundancy. RAID 0 is not recommended for use in servers or other
environments where data redundancy is a primary goal.
Figure 1. RAID 0
Minimum Disks:
Advantage:
Redundancy:
2
Highest transfer rates
None – if one disk fails all data will be lost
Application:
Typically used in desktops and workstations for maximum performance for temporary
data and high I/O rate
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RAID 0 (Striping)
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14 User's Manual
RAID 1 (Mirroring)
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4 RAID 1 (Mirroring)
A RAID 1 array contains two hard drives where the data between the two is mirrored in real time.
Since all of the data is duplicated, the operating system treats the usable space of a RAID 1 array
as the maximum size of one hard drive in the array. For example, two 40 GB hard drives in a
RAID 1 array will appear as a single 40 GB hard drive to the operating system.
The primary benefit of RAID 1 mirroring is that it provides good data reliability in the case of a
single disk failure. When one disk drive fails, all data is immediately available on the other
without any impact to the data integrity. In the case of a disk failure, the computer system will
remain fully operational to ensure maximum productivity.
The performance of a RAID 1 array is greater than that of a single drive since data can be read
from multiple disks simultaneously, although disk writes do not realize the same benefit as is the
case with RAID 0.
Figure 2. RAID 1
Minimum Disks:
Advantage:
Redundancy:
Application:
2
100% redundancy of data. One disk may fail, but data will continue to be
accessible. A rebuild to a new disk is recommended to maintain data
redundancy.
Excellent - disk mirroring means that all data on one disk is duplicated on
another disk.
Typically used for smaller systems where capacity of one disk is sufficient
and for any application(s) requiring very high availability.
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RAID 1 (Mirroring)
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RAID Migration Feature
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5 RAID Migration Feature
The RAID migration feature in the Intel® Application Accelerator RAID Edition is an advanced
software technology that enables a properly configured PC, known as a “RAID Ready” system, to
be easily converted into a high-performance RAID 0 or RAID 1configuration by simply adding a
Serial ATA hard drive to the system and invoking the RAID migration process from within
Windows*.
The migration to a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration is performed without the traditional
requirements of an operating system re-install. All applications and data remain intact.
The migration process itself can take up to several hours depending on the size of the hard drives
being converted, but the system is still fully functional while the migration is being performed – it
is possible to conduct other activities such as surf the Web and/or run productivity applications
while the system is being migrated. The only limitation is that some disk intensive tasks may
experience slower performance during a RAID migration.
The RAID migration feature also features advanced safety algorithms to ensure that an interrupted
migration does not result in data loss or corruption. If the migration process is interrupted via a
power loss or system reset, the migration will resume from the point of it’s most recent progress
upon the next system reboot.
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RAID Migration Feature
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18 User's Manual
Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition
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6 Intel Application Accelerator RAID
Edition
6.1 Description
The Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition is the software package that enables highperformance RAID 0 arrays and redundant RAID 1 arrays in Windows* XP and Windows 2000.
The Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition contains the following key features:
• Serial ATA RAID core driver for Windows XP and Windows 2000
6.2 Do You Need the Intel Application Accelerator RAID
Edition?
The Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition reduces the storage sub-system bottleneck,
enabling the processor and other system level hardware to be more productive and efficient. It is a
requirement in order for Intel® RAID Technology to work properly. It is not a requirement for
stand-alone Serial ATA hard drive(s) to work properly (e.g. not configured for RAID).
To use the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, your system must meet ALL of the
following requirements:
To take advantage of increased storage subsystem performance and overall system performance,
your system must meet the following requirement:
• A Serial ATA device (e.g. hard drive that supports Generation 1 transfers)
Warning: Serial ATA has specific requirements. Please refer to the Appendix C.3 for more information.
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Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition
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Serial ATA (SATA)
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7 Serial ATA (SATA)
7.1 Description
Serial ATA (SATA) is a new storage interface designed to replace parallel ATA (e.g. IDE
technology). SATA was designed for a variety of reasons including performance headroom,
cabling issues, and voltage tolerance requirements. SATA combines software transparency, low
cost, scalability, and design flexibility. SATA has attracted widespread industry support through
the Serial ATA Working Group (www.serialata.org
Note: Please refer to Appendix A for additional information on Serial ATA hard drives.
7.2 Installing Serial ATA Hard Drives
).
Note: Please refer to Appendix A for additional information on Serial ATA hard drives.
Installing Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives requires the use of a SATA data cable (7-pin, 4conductor) which supports the Serial ATA protocol and a SATA power cable. Either end of the
SATA data cable can be connected to the SATA hard drive or the connector on the motherboard.
User's Manual 21
Serial ATA (SATA)
For correct cable installation** (refer to illustration below):
1. Attach either cable end to the connector (A) on the motherboard
2. Attach the other cable end (B) to the SATA hard drive
Note: Both the data and power SATA cables are new designs – you cannot use older 40-pin 80-
conductor IDE or regular IDE power cables with SATA hard drives.
** You should always carefully follow any instructions that come from the hard drive
manufacturer.
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BIOS Importance / Settings
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8 BIOS Importance / Settings
In order to install the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, it is required that the system
BIOS includes the Intel® RAID Option ROM.
It is also necessary that the system BIOS is set up correctly for the RAID controller before
installing the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition. Refer to the motherboard
documentation or contact the motherboard manufacturer or your place of purchase for instructions
on properly configuring the system BIOS for RAID.
If you are using an Intel motherboard with a supported Intel chipset
(see http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/suppchip.htm
to configure the BIOS for Intel® RAID for Serial ATA.
,
) Section 10 identifies how
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BIOS Importance / Settings
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Important Information on Intel Option ROM Version
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9 Important Information on Intel
Option ROM Version
In order to fully utilize the new features included in version 3 .5 of the Intel® Application
Accelerator RAID Edition, Intel recommends that you first upgrade your system BIOS to one that
includes version 3.5 of the Intel RAID Option ROM. You can obtain this system BIOS from your
motherboard or system manufacturer.
The Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition needs to have the associated version of the Intel
RAID Option ROM installed on the system in order to support the entire feature set. Intel
Application Accelerator RAID Edition version 3.5 automatically checks to see if version 3.5 of
the Intel RAID Option ROM is installed. If it is not, a dialog message will appear informing you
to update your system BIOS.
If you currently have version 3.0 of the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition and version
3.0 of the Intel RAID Option ROM installed on your system, you can successfully upgrade to
version 3.5 of the Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition, but you will not be able to use the
new features (e.g. RAID 1).
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Important Information on Intel Option ROM Version
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