Re: 3ware escalade vs software raid, from a different jeff

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004, Michael wrote:

Bear in mind that what you are calling "true hardware raid" is really
a microprocessor programmed to do the raid algorithims.

3ware has custom designed matrix switch chips to handle each IDE drive.
This *alone* is worth the cost of the card.  The RAID parity calculations
are also done in hardware (not a bunch of CPU xor's.)  You'd be surprised how
much data a small "slow" processor can move when properly programmed.

These turkeys have micro-code bugs that cause a
variety of problem for which there is no workaround or solution other
than trashing the cards.

Exactly what bugs?  I've used a number of hardware SCSI RAID cards (none
by Adaptec however -- some that are now owned by Adapatec) and all of them
work properly -- as long as they aren't physically damaged (I had one with
a bad DIMM)

--Ricky