It contains two operation modes that follow two Intel specific modes rather than the SATA standard. The name modes and the application that contains them have been renamed since the first version. Until 2010 it contains AHCI and Matrix RAID modes. The first mode is the Intel driver SATA normal and the latter mode is a fake RAID.[1] Up to version 4 it is included on Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition,[2] between versions 5 and 8.9 it is included on Intel Matrix Storage Manager (IMSM), since version 9 it is included on Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) preferring the driver modes to be named RST AHCI and RST AHCI RAID instead of Matrix RAID. The latter is also known as RST RAID mode, since it is the mode that Intel recommends to use, even if you are not working with a RAID configuration. The purpose of the program, after installing the drivers, is to configure the operation in this mode.
Both modes work with SATA drives. The boot mode choice, with one mode or the other, is chosen in modern BIOS/UEFI after driver installation.[3] Once one or the other driver is installed, it is not possible for the Windows operating system to boot again with the BIOS/UEFI set to RAID/IDE, producing BSOD in case of trying.[4]
As of 2020, it includes a RAID system capable of RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 10, a block levelSSDcaching accelerator ("Smart Response Technology") with support for write-back and write-through modes for speed or data protection of any disk or RAID array, and support for intelligent caching, speedy recovery from certain issues, and for PCI Express based drives. Intel RST came in two variants, RST for desktops, and RSTe for enterprise scenarios, although for many chipsets, the user could choose as both variants will operate correctly.[5]VROC was a part of Intel RSTe. The SATA RAID portion of the product family was called Intel RSTe and the NVMe* RAID portion was called Intel VROC. However, starting in Q1 2019, with the launch of Intel VROC 6.0, the Intel RSTe name was removed, and all RAID solutions in this product family were branded as Intel VROC. The SATA functionality remains, but is now branded as Intel VROC (SATA RAID). Intel RSTe is no longer a referenced product by Intel. The name may still appear in some legacy products, but all new references will solely use the Intel VROC nomenclature.[6][7]).
Intel RST is provided by a combination of firmware, chipset and CPU capabilities, and software. As such, the chipset, the firmware included in the BIOS, and the software installed by the user, must be compatible versions. Online forums and communities exist which compare the benefits of different versions of these, advise as to best compatibility for specified hardware, and modify existing firmware and software to allow optimal combinations or updates beyond those provided by the hardware manufacturers.[8]
Like all RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), Intel RST 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 (except RAID 0), and/or to increase the speed at which data is written to and/or read from a disk. Intel RST RAID does not provide new RAID levels. It allows different areas (e.g. partitions or logical volumes) on the same disk to be assigned to different RAID devices, unlike some other RAID controllers. Intel recommends to put any critical applications and data on a RAID 1, 5, or 10 volume, with redundancy to protect against data loss. The RAID 0 volume in Matrix RAID provides fast access to large files where data loss is not a critical issue but speed is; examples include video editing, swap files, and files that are backed up. Intel Matrix RAID, Intel Rapid RAID, and Intel Smart Response Technology are together described as Intel Rapid Storage Technology.[9]
Operating system support
"Rapid Storage Technology" (RST), including creation of RAID volumes, works under Windows 7 and newer versions of Microsoft Windows. The older "Intel Matrix RAID" is supported under Microsoft Windows XP.
Linux supports Matrix RAID and Rapid Storage Technology (RST) through device mapper, with dmraid tool, for RAID 0, 1 and 10. And Linux MD RAID, with mdadm tool, for RAID 0, 1, 10, and 5. Set up of the RAID volumes must be done by using the ROM option in the Matrix Storage Manager, then further configuration can be done in DM-RAID or MD-RAID.[10]
FreeBSD 10+ support Intel RAID BIOS through the graid command.[11]FreeBSD versions 6 thru 9 and MidnightBSD supported Intel Matrix RAID using the "ataraid" driver, managed through the atacontrol command.[12][13] However, with older versions[when?] of FreeBSD there were critical reliability issues which include array device renaming when a disk in an array is replaced,[14] an array being considered healthy if the machine reboot/crashes during an array rebuild,[15] and kernel panics when a disk is lost or is removed from the bus.[16][17] Some of these problems, when experienced in combination, could result in the loss of an entire array (even in the case of RAID 1).
VMware ESXi 4 does not support any RAID function nor Intel Matrix RAID based on Intel ICHxR controllers.[18]
PGPDisk does not support Intel Matrix RAID based on Intel ICHxR, and does not support standalone drives if the "RAID" mode is enabled on the motherboard.
Matrix Storage Manager option ROM
The Intel Matrix Storage Manager (IMSM) option ROM is a part of Matrix RAID that has to be used in the BIOS to create new RAID arrays.[19]As of 2014[update] Intel uses "Rapid Storage Technology" -"Option Rom"- on its new chipsets, dropping the "Matrix" name.[20][21] An Intel document notes that Intel Matrix Storage Manager storage changed to Intel Rapid Storage Technology beginning with version 9.5.[22]
There have been several driver versions:
Version
Release date
Notes
v3.x.x
2003
First version for SATA drives. Versions 1 & 2 are for IDE drives without AHCI & RAID modes.
v3.5.0
v4.x.x
Latest version in which MATRIX RAID mode is included on the named application Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition.
v5.x.x
Since this version the MATRIX RAID mode is included on the named application Intel Matrix Storage Manager, up to version 8.9.
This version is the first to support RAID arrays made of HDDs with over 2.2 TB.[23]
v10.6.0
June 2011
v10.8.0
November 2011
Last version to officially support ICH9R.(Supermicro X7SPA-L)
v11.0.0
February 2012
v11.2.0
June 2012
[24] 11.2 which offers TRIM support on RAID 0 compatible with Windows 7 on Intel 7 series chipsets (earlier chipsets are officially orphaned by Intel).But you can mod RST or MSM oROM to support "TRIM on RAID 0" on ICH8R and up.
Last version to support Windows 8.1 and earlier. Last version to support Smart Response cache acceleration with a SATA SSD.[27] Recommended for PCH 100/200 series in AHCI mode[26]
v16.0.2.1086
February 2018
First generic version to support Skylake CPUs
v16.5.1.1030
February 2018
First generic version to support the 300 series chipsets
v16.8.3.1003
July 2019
v17.5.2.1024
August 2019
Improved Optane support
v17.7.0.1006
September 2019
v18.6.1.1016
September 2021
Since release 11.2.0.0000, TRIM commands can be read by Windows RAID drivers made for 7 series chipsets. There is no RAID mode TRIM support on drivers for older chipsets.[28]
Intel states that RST support was added for the X79 chipset in RST version 11.6.0.0000 and after.[29]
On some 6 series chipsets there is a modification for the ROM in the BIOS, which will allow TRIM support on the 6 series chipset.[30]
For the X79 chipset, certain motherboard manufacturers have added both RAID ROMs in the BIOS, the RST and RST-E ROM. X79 is the Enterprise version, called RST-E. With the RST ROM added to the BIOS, this allows TRIM function to pass through the controller and TRIM SSD drives when RAID is enabled. This workaround was needed before RST-E driver version 3.8 was shipped which passed through TRIM commands to a RAID array without modifications to the RST-E ROM. There is no support for TRIM in the RST-E version of the ROM when RAID is enabled and the RST-E driver version is less than 3.8.[31] It is possible to add an RST ROM to the BIOS to enable TRIM passthrough in RAID mode by using the RST ROM and driver.[30]
The newest Option ROM version is a 13 series ROM, this ROM will not be used by motherboard manufacturers for the X79 chipset BIOS, and it can be injected into a BIOS to use on the X79 with modded code, for those MFG's who have added a ROM switch, this is where the MFG has added both RST and RSTe to the RAID option of a BIOS, but there needs to be a code added for TRIM commands to be sent, when you inject the RST and replace the RSTe with RST option ROM in X79 boards that do not contain the ROM switch, TRIM can be dysfunctional.
There are modded RST 13 series Option ROMs (legacy) available at certain BIOS modding sites that have been made functional for use in the X79 chipsets.
When booting in a BIOS environment (legacy) and some EFI, the RST option ROM is used. When booting in a true UEFI environment the Option ROM is not used as a SataDriver with the RST version takes over. In BIOS mode the legacy/BIOS booting is under CSMCORE. In true UEFI mode the RST is controlled under SataDriver / RstVmdDriver in BIOS.
The Intel RAID ROM is the firmware in the motherboard BIOS that is used to create the RAID array.
Note: The RST drivers can be used for RAID and also on a single drive as it contains an AHCI driver. There is a bug in the version 12.5.0.1066 RST driver, which cause TRIM commands not to pass through the RAID driver to the drives. TRIM is disabled using this driver.
Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (Intel RSTe)
Intel Rapid Storage Technology enterprise (Intel RSTe)[32] provides performance and reliability for supported systems equipped with Serial ATA (SATA) devices, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices, and/or solid state drives (SSDs) to enable an optimal enterprise storage solution. The main difference between RST and RSTe is that the RST is used for desktop systems and the RSTe is mostly used for server systems.[33][clarification needed] RST supports regular SATA controllers from desktop systems.
If the BIOS of the motherboard has RSTe feature then the user cannot install Intel Rapid Storage Technology software (error message: This platform is not supported). The user has to install RSTe software.
There have been several Option ROM versions:
Version
Release date
Notes
4.3.0.1010
2014
This version is installed on some Intel C236 Chipset-based motherboards (e.g. Asus P10S WS)
5.1.0.1099
2017/04
5.3.1.1016
2017/11
5.5.0.2012
2018/12
In 2019, Intel announced that the RTSe branding would be replaced, with RSTe consolidated into Intel's VROC (Virtual RAID on CPU) product line.[6]
Intel VROC (Virtual RAID on CPU)
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2020)
Intel VROC was mostly designed with NVMe SSD's in mind and it is directly attached to the Intel Xeon Scalable processors. For the full functionality it uses a newer Intel technology called Intel VMD (Intel Volume Management Device).[34]
Intel VROC is a technology from the Intel Xeon Scalable processors series and is used to provide hot-plug, surprise-removal, and LED management of NVMe SSD's for server usage. For client PC's Intel RST is still the advised software package to use.[34]
Intel VMD is targeted for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.[34]
At begin of 2019 Intel launched VROC 6.0 that includes RSTe. After this the RSTe name no longer used.[35]
RAID is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical data storage components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. This is in contrast to the previous concept of highly reliable mainframe disk drives known as single large expensive disk (SLED).
SATA is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to become the predominant interface for storage devices.
A disk array controller is a device that manages the physical disk drives and presents them to the computer as logical units. It often implements hardware RAID, thus it is sometimes referred to as RAID controller. It also often provides additional disk cache.
On older personal computer motherboards, the southbridge is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset, handling many of a computer's input/output functions. The other component of the chipset is the northbridge, which generally handles high speed onboard communications.
In computing, Native Command Queuing (NCQ) is an extension of the Serial ATA protocol allowing hard disk drives to internally optimize the order in which received read and write commands are executed. This can reduce the amount of unnecessary drive head movement, resulting in increased performance for workloads where multiple simultaneous read/write requests are outstanding, most often occurring in server-type applications.
The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the register-level interface of Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers in a non-implementation-specific manner in its motherboard chipsets.
Input/output operations per second is an input/output performance measurement used to characterize computer storage devices like hard disk drives (HDD), solid state drives (SSD), and storage area networks (SAN). Like benchmarks, IOPS numbers published by storage device manufacturers do not directly relate to real-world application performance.
A hybrid drive is a logical or physical computer storage device that combines a faster storage medium such as solid-state drive (SSD) with a higher-capacity hard disk drive (HDD). The intent is adding some of the speed of SSDs to the cost-effective storage capacity of traditional HDDs. The purpose of the SSD in a hybrid drive is to act as a cache for the data stored on the HDD, improving the overall performance by keeping copies of the most frequently used data on the faster SSD drive.
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuits to store data persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-state device, or solid-state disk.
Although all RAID implementations differ from the specification to some extent, some companies and open-source projects have developed non-standard RAID implementations that differ substantially from the standard. Additionally, there are non-RAID drive architectures, providing configurations of multiple hard drives not referred to by RAID acronyms.
mdadm is a Linux utility used to manage and monitor software RAID devices. It is used in modern Linux distributions in place of older software RAID utilities such as raidtools2 or raidtools.
The P35 Express is a mainstream desktop computer chipset from Intel released in June 2007, although motherboards featuring the chipset were available a month earlier. The P35 Express chipset supports Intel's LGA 775 socket and Core 2 Duo and Quad processors, and is also known to support 45 nm Wolfdale/Yorkfield dual and quad core CPUs. Theoretically, Intel also dropped support for Intel's Pentium 4 and Pentium D processors with this chipset although late Pentium 4 processors, including both the 32-bit-only (5x0) and the 32-bit/64-bit (5x1), and a few others, were fully supported.
I/O Controller Hub (ICH) is a family of Intel southbridge microchips used to manage data communications between a CPU and a motherboard, specifically Intel chipsets based on the Intel Hub Architecture. It is designed to be paired with a second support chip known as a northbridge. As with any other southbridge, the ICH is used to connect and control peripheral devices.
A trim command allows an operating system to inform a solid-state drive (SSD) which blocks of data are no longer considered to be "in use" and therefore can be erased internally.
SeaBIOS is an open-source implementation of an x86 BIOS, serving as a freely available firmware for x86 systems. Aiming for compatibility, it supports standard BIOS features and calling interfaces that are implemented by a typical proprietary x86 BIOS. SeaBIOS can either run on bare hardware as a coreboot payload, or can be used directly in emulators such as QEMU and Bochs.
The Intel X79 is a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) designed and manufactured by Intel for their LGA 2011 and LGA 2011-1.
NVM Express (NVMe) or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS) is an open, logical-device interface specification for accessing a computer's non-volatile storage media usually attached via the PCI Express bus. The initial NVM stands for non-volatile memory, which is often NAND flash memory that comes in several physical form factors, including solid-state drives (SSDs), PCIe add-in cards, and M.2 cards, the successor to mSATA cards. NVM Express, as a logical-device interface, has been designed to capitalize on the low latency and internal parallelism of solid-state storage devices.
In computer data storage, Smart Response Technology is a proprietary caching mechanism introduced in 2011 by Intel for their Z68 chipset, which allows a SATA solid-state drive (SSD) to function as cache for a hard disk drive (HDD).
SATA Express is a computer bus interface that supports both Serial ATA (SATA) and PCI Express (PCIe) storage devices, initially standardized in the SATA 3.2 specification. The SATA Express connector used on the host side is backward compatible with the standard SATA data connector, while it also provides two PCI Express lanes as a pure PCI Express connection to the storage device.
Intel X99, codenamed "Wellsburg", is a Platform Controller Hub (PCH) designed and manufactured by Intel, targeted at the high-end desktop (HEDT) and enthusiast segments of the Intel product lineup. The X99 chipset supports both Intel Core i7 Extreme and Intel Xeon E5-16xx v3 and E5-26xx v3 processors, which belong to the Haswell-E and Haswell-EP variants of the Haswell microarchitecture, respectively. All supported processors use the LGA 2011-v3 socket.
↑ win-raid forumArchived 2020-01-13 at the Wayback Machine is a website that provides guidance as to whether specific chipsets perform better with RST or RTS(e), if a choice exists and both will work.
↑ "Supported Intel Chipsets and Controller Hubs". Intel.com. 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-03-01. The product name was changed from Intel Matrix Storage Manager to Intel RST beginning with version 9.5
win-raidArchived 2020-01-11 at the Wayback Machine , forum specializing in Intel RST and similar soft raid, choice of driver/rom/orom, and modification of roms.
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