Compaq Smart Array 5i Plus Controller and Battery Backed Write Cache Enabler User Guide
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COMPAQ CONFIDENTIAL
Writer: Amy L. Laffitte File Name: l-appc Drive Arrays and Fault Tolerance
Codename: Executor Part Number: 266328-001 Last Saved On: 4/18/02 2:51 PM
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Drive Arrays and Fault Tolerance
What Is a Drive Array?
The capacity and performance of a single physical (hard) drive is adequate for home
users. However, business users demand higher storage capacities, higher data transfer
rates, and greater protection against data loss when drives fail.
Merely adding extra physical drives to the system increases the total storage capacity
(see Figure C-1). However, this addition does not affect the efficiency of read/write
(R/W) operations, since data can still be transferred to only one physical drive at a
time.
R/W
P1
P2
P3
Figure C-1: Physical drives added to system
