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DiskSwitch™ Techonology
The DiskSwitch™ architecture replaces the shared bus found in SCSI systems with a multiplexed data path that speeds data into system memory without burdening the host CPU.
The DiskSwitch™ chipset is shown above.
With 3Ware's AccelerATA Data Channel, the ATA protocol is implemented in the hardware layer, rather than running the software on the host CPU. With a dedicated hardware design, the card assigned each drive on the system individually and handles the queue as well as requests separately before gathering the data coming through the channel.
The dual AccelerATA chipset for the four IDE channels.
Packet Switching Controller
The DiskSwitch architecture includes an on-board processor that manages the data flow from each AccelerATA data channel. This packet switching controller multiplexes the data streaming from each drive and maximizes the access rate, eliminating the bus arbitration delays and the channel bottlenecks. Packet switching keeps your data moving fast enough to keep up with the fastest of microprocessors. In short, good stuff.
Diagram on the Packet Switching Controller
TwinStor™ Techonology
Another important feature of the 3Ware which distinguished itself from other IDE RAID cards in the market is the TwinStor™ technology. With 3Ware's patented adaptive algorithms and drive profiling, these help to speed data access and yield read performance that rivals RAID 0.
Normal IDE RAID controllers simply mirror the data from one hard drive to another simultaneously during writing. However, these RAID controllers do not take advantage of the additional drive to read the data off. With the TwinStor™ Techonology, it starts by profiling the drives when the system is configured initially (based on the brand of hard drives being used). It then keeps a statistical history of data accesses so that it can determine the particular data layout on the drives and distinguish between sequential and random reads. Furthermore, the algorithms are adaptive, meaning the controller could react and continue fine-tuning as the data on your system shrink/grow.
Our Maxtor DM45+ were profiled for the first time by the 3Ware card.
Another feature is RAID-0 like striping which helps to speed up sequential reads. Both drives will work in tandem, reading portions of the files from one disk to another, giving read performance that approaches RAID-0 rates, while retaining the fault tolerance of mirroring.
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