Rapid Storage Technology

Matrix RAID is a computer storage technology marketed by Intel. It is a firmware, rather than hardware or software, RAID system.

Matrix RAID first appeared in the ICH6R "southbridge" chip. Intel uses an 'R' at the end of the southbridge's name – ICH9R instead of ICH9 – to indicate when a southbridge contains their Matrix RAID technology and no other upgrades. Complicating the matter is that instead of "R," a "DO," "DH," etc. has indicated a southbridge that combined RAID with non-RAID-related upgrades to the southbridge. Newer chipsets which do not use a separate southbridge might also use Intel RST without explicit extensions like "R" within the chipset name; an example for this is the Intel PCH C200 chipset series. Like all RAID, Intel Matrix 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 (as all RAID levels except RAID 0 do), and/or to increase the speed at which data is written to and/or read from a disk.

Intel Matrix RAID is not a new RAID level. 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. The ICH10R supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, and RAID 5.

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.

Linux supports Matrix RAID through device mapper (DM-RAID) for RAID 0, 1 and 10, and Linux MD RAID 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.

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