Vig395P Motherboard Manual
79
Adaptec HostRAID Setup Guidelines
After all the hardware has been installed, you must first configure the Adaptec
Embedded Serial ATA RAID before you install the Windows operating system. The
necessary drivers are all included on the Viglen driver CD that comes with your system.
Note:
The following section provides information
on the Adaptec SATA RAID Driver
based on the Intel Enterprise South Bridge 2
(ESB2) Controller.
Introduction to the Adaptec Embedded Serial ATA RAID Controller
Driver
Serial ATA (SATA)
Serial ATA (SATA) is a physical storage interface. It uses a single cable with a
minimum of four wires to create a point-to-point connection between devices. It is a
serial link which supports SATA Transfer rates up to 3.0 Gbps. Because the serial
cables used in SATA are thinner than the traditional cables used in Parallel ATA
(PATA), SATA systems have better airflow and can be installed in smaller chassis than
Parallel ATA. In addition, the cables used in PATA can only extend to 40cm long, while
Serial ATA cables can extend up to one meter. Overall, Serial ATA provides better
functionality than Parallel ATA.
Introduction to the Intel ESB2 I/O Controller Hub
Located in the South Bridge of the Intel 5000X Chipset, the ESB2 I/O Controller Hub
provides the I/O subsystem with access to the rest of the system. It supports 1-channel
Ultra ATA/100 Bus Master IDE controller (PATA) and one Adaptec's Serial ATA (SATA)
Host Controller, which support up to six Serial ATA drives, up to two RAID volumes and
up to four drives in RAID Configurations. (See below for details.)
Adaptec’s SATA HostRAID Controller Firmware supports:
•
Drives supported- Six
•
Number of RAID Volumes supported- Two
•
Total Drives in RAID Configurations- Four
Examples of Valid RAID Configurations:
•
Two drives of RAID 1 + two drives of RAID 0
•
Two drives of RAID 1 + two drives of RAID 1
•
Three drives of RAID 0
•
Four drives of RAID 0
Examples of Invalid RAID Configurations:
•
Three drives of RAID 0 + Two drives of RAID 1
Note:
The information above is applicable to Adaptec’s HostRAID Controller Firmware
only.
