Intel® Matrix Storage Technology

We live in a digital world. We digitally create, record, edit, share, and save practically everything from the movies we watch, to the pictures we take, to the documents we store. Today's digital home demands we protect this data against loss. Intel® Matrix Storage Technology provides improved performance and reliability for systems equipped with Serial ATA* hard disk drives, today's proven storage solution. Intel® Matrix Storage Technology provides support for features that enable lower power consumption. For mobile systems this provides a longer battery life.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology provides new levels of protection, performance, and expandability in 2008 for desktop and mobile platforms. Whether using one or multiple hard drives, users can take advantage of enhanced performance and lower power consumption. When using more than one drive the user can have additional protection against data loss in the event of hard drive failure.

Valuable digital memories are protected against a hard drive failure when the system is configured for any one of three fault-tolerant RAID levels: RAID 1, 5 or 10. By seamlessly storing copies of data on one or more additional hard drives, any hard drive can fail without data loss or system downtime. When the failed drive is removed and a replacement hard drive is installed, data fault tolerance is easily restored. In this way, Intel Matrix Storage Technology provides the level of data protection necessary for today's digital computing platforms. In the digital office the increased redundancy reduces costly downtime and maintains employee productivity involving the PC.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology can also improve the performance of disk intensive retrieval applications such as editing home video. By combining from two to six drives in a RAID 0 configuration, data can be accessed on each drive simultaneously, speeding up response time on data-intensive applications. Also, due to drive load balancing, even systems with RAID 1 can take advantage of faster boot times and data reads. In the office there are more background tasks such as virus scans, data backup, e-mail, and data processing consuming storage resources. Implementing a basic RAID 1 configuration helps alleviate the bottleneck encountered by running these added tasks.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology provides benefits to users of a single drive as well. Storage performance is improved through Native Command Queuing (NCQ), harnessing the quad DMA controllers in the hardware, and optimized hardware & software tuning. For mobile systems, longer battery life is enabled through Link Power Management (LPM) which can reduce the power consumption of the chipset and SATA* hard drive. To warn of possible hard drive failures, SMART alerting is provided, notifying users when the drive detects potential oncoming failure. For those who wish to later upgrade to RAID capabilities, a system with Intel Matrix Storage Technology pre-installed allows a simplified upgrade to any supported RAID level from a single drive without having to reinstall the operating system or incur any downtime.

Intel® Rapid Recover Technology (Intel® RRT): With the ability to instantly boot off a clone, Intel Rapid Recover Technology (part of Intel Matrix Storage Technology) provides a fast, easy-to-use method for the end user to recover their data and return their system to an operational status.

For those users who wish to combine the benefits of two RAID levels, matrix RAID is the solution. When using two hard drives, matrix RAID allows RAID 0 and RAID 1 functions to be combined, where critical files can be stored on RAID 1, and RAID 0 can be used for non-critical items such as software. In 2005, the matrix RAID capability was expanded to include RAID 5 and RAID 10. For instance, RAID 5 and RAID 0 can be combined to provide higher performance, capacity, and fault tolerance. A user can edit digital video on a high-performance 4-drive RAID 0 array, then transfer it to RAID 5 for protected storage when completed.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology extends its performance and protection capabilities outside of the PC through native support of eSATA*.

By providing integrated hardware and software solutions, Intel makes RAID and advanced storage features an affordable reality for desktop and mobile platforms. Based upon technology from Intel's enterprise products and Intel desktop and mobile hardware, Intel continues to provide a leading RAID solution that is both affordable and usable in the digital home and office.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology continues its support of hardware storage features. 3Gb/s support doubles the hard drive to chipset transfer rate, providing additional responsiveness and headroom, eSATA support extends this high performance interface outside of the desktop and mobile systems and provides expanded connectivity. By including support for Serial ATA Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI), Native Command Queuing (NCQ) provides additional performance & faster boot times, hot plug capability to allow drives to be added or removed with the PC running, and staggered spin up to reduce power loads on machines with multiple drives.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology can be found on select platforms based on the Intel® 4 Series chipsets, Intel® 3 Series chipsets, 965, 975X, 955X, 945G ,945P, 945PM and 945GM Express chipsets. Contact the platform manufacturers directly to verify which of their products offer Intel Matrix Storage Technology.

In today's digital age, safekeeping of digital content such as photographs, video, audio and personal records, is extremely important. Should a PC's hard drive fail, these digital memories can be lost forever. Additionally, high-speed storage capabilities improve the performance of demanding applications and games. Whether users want to load huge files into Adobe Photoshop* faster, create large CD/DVD images with Nero* in record time, or want to be the first on the map in a Doom* 'frag' tournament, Intel Matrix Storage Technology is a key part of the solution for these and many other disk-intensive applications.

Video content, digital photos, music libraries, realistic 3-D gaming environments and even TV programs recorded live from satellite can all be stored on today's desktop and mobile PCs. With gigabytes of data being transferred to and from the hard drive, storage performance counts. Intel Matrix Storage Technology helps deliver results in this media-rich computing environment.

Building or buying a PC with a single Serial ATA hard drive, then upgrading to RAID at a later date is typically not a simple task, as it requires the reinstallation of the OS and applications. However, an Intel Express chipset with Intel Matrix Storage Technology** can be more easily upgraded to RAID capabilities when adding one or more additional Serial ATA hard drive(s). The Intel® Matrix Storage Manager software (included with platforms supporting Intel Matrix Storage Technology) handles the configuration and migration while running in the background, allowing users to surf the Web or read e-mail during the process. Once the migration is complete, dramatic increases in data protection or storage performance are available.

When looking for a desktop or mobile PC system designed to protect your digital memories, be sure to look for an Intel Express chipset with Intel Matrix Storage Technology.