Intel Matrix RAID
Matrix RAID is a computer storage technology marketed by Intel. It is a firmware RAID system, rather than hardware RAID or software RAID.
Matrix RAID first appeared in the ICH6R "southbridge" chip. Intel uses an 'R' at the end of the southbridge's name – ICH9R instead of ICH9 – to indicate when a southbridge contains their Matrix RAID technology and no other upgrades. Complicating the matter is that instead of "R," a "DO," "DH," etc. has indicated a southbridge that combined RAID with non-RAID-related upgrades to the southbridge. Note that newer chipsets which don't use a separate southbridge might also use Intel RST without explicit extensions like "R" within the chipset name, an example for this is the Intel PCH C200 chipset series. Like all RAID, Intel Matrix RAID employs two or more physical hard disks which the operating system will treat as a single disk, in order to increase redundancy which avoids data loss (as all RAID levels except RAID 0 do), and/or to increase the speed at which data is written to and/or read from a disk.
Intel Matrix RAID is not a new RAID level. One of the features that Intel Matrix RAID has, which many other RAID implementations lack, is that different areas (e.g. partitions or logical volumes) on the same disk can be assigned to different RAID devices. The ICH10R supports Standard RAID levels RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, and RAID 5.
Intel recommends to put any critical applications and data on a RAID 1, 5, or 10 volume. The thinking being that protection from losing the user's personal data and the OS and program configuration settings is more important than having the pure performance (speed) increase of RAID 0. On the other hand, the RAID 0 volume in Matrix RAID is recommended mostly for working with large files, such as videos during editing, and for non-critical files where fast storage will increase performance (swap files, for example, or read-only files that are backed-up on a separate PC).
Intel Matrix RAID, along with Intel Rapid RAID and Intel Smart Response Technology, are features of Intel Rapid Storage Technology.
Read more about Intel Matrix RAID: Operating System Support, Matrix Storage Manager Option ROM
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