On Sun, Oct 24, 2004 at 08:28:35PM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote: > Isn't *all* real h/w RAID "just secret proprietary software" on > the RAID controller? Whether it be in flash or an EEPROM, real > h/w RAID controllers have a dedicated (usually specialized) CPU > for handling the RAID calculations, SCSI commands, RAM cache, etc. > > Thats why when you call up IBM, HP or Sun with a disk-related issue, > they ask you if your SCSI cards & RAID controllers are at the latest > ROM version.
Well software raid is defined as raid that does the calculations in software (on your cpu), while hardware raid does the calculations using custom circuitry or a dedicated cpu running some software (firmware). If I have to waste cpu time on raid, I at least want to be able to see the code running on my cpu and perhaps be able to improve on it. That is the difference. Len Sorensen
