What is Intel Rapid Storage Technology? As one of the biggest names in the PC industry, Intel has been creating innovative computer technologies and software that make our lives easier ever since its founding in 1968. That’s why it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Intel has such high-quality storage technology built into its chipsets, called Intel Rapid Storage Technology (or just Intel RST). But what exactly is Intel RST? How does it work? What are some of its most notable features? Read on to find out more about this exciting piece of storage technology!
An Introduction to Intel Rapid Storage Technology
What is Intel Rapid Storage Technology? Matrix RAID has been renamed, re-implemented, and expanded over time. In fact, it can be found in everything from servers to desktops and now laptops as well. There are several versions of RST, which include RST 5 (codenamed Clark’s field), RST 6 (codenamed Squawk Peak), and a new version called RST 8 (codenamed Cougar Point).
This series of chipset offerings are designed to work with a wide range of storage devices including SATA/SAS drives, flash storage devices, and even SSDs. Essentially what happens with technology like Matrix RAID is that it allows users to treat multiple physical disks as if they were one large array of storage space.
For example, if you have four 500GB hard drives installed on your computer but want to use them as a single 2TB volume for storing data then you could set up Matrix RAID so that all four disks would appear as one drive letter.
The benefit here is speed since reading or writing data across all four disks at once will result in much faster speeds than accessing each disk individually even though all four may not be physically connected to your system at once. You also get redundancy when using multiple hard drives because each drive contains an exact copy of your data. If any single disk fails, then your system will automatically start using another copy of your data on another drive until you replace or repair the faulty drive(s).
What is Intel Rapid Storage Technology? Well, Microsoft decided to build support for these kinds of RAID systems into its operating system. That means that instead of having to install a separate piece of software onto your PC in order to take advantage of Matrix RAID you simply need to enable support within Windows itself. To enable RST support within Windows 7 go into Control Panel Programs Turn Windows features on or off check Intel Rapid Storage Technology and click OK.
Create Optimal Layout Wizard, Disk Management, and Intel Matrix Storage Manager User Interface. Creating an optimal layout refers to creating a Matrix RAID configuration file that Windows can understand. You don’t have to create one yourself but if you’re familiar with advanced partitioning tools such as GParted then you might want to give it a try.
Otherwise, just leave it alone and let Windows handle things for you. Next comes Disk Management where you’ll see all available disks attached to your computer listed by their size, model number, and serial number along with information about how many partitions exist on each disk and what file system is being used by default. Right-clicking any partition gives you access to more detailed information about that particular partition such as its status (active or inactive), capacity, free space, file system type, and more.
How does it work?
IRST works in conjunction with your standard operating system to improve the read and write speeds. How much it helps depends on a number of factors, including what kind of drive you have. Standard SATA drives can see anywhere from 50% to 100% faster speeds, while SSDs can see up to 200% speed gains, depending on which version of IRST you have. Either way, IRST will help you get more out of your storage capabilities.
What is Intel Rapid Storage Technology? You can also use it if running Linux in a virtual machine under Virtual PC or VMware Workstation Pro/Player 4; however, these instances aren’t supported officially by Intel. If you’re not sure whether your motherboard supports IRST, check its specifications online. If it doesn’t support it natively, there are workarounds that allow IRST to run even without official support.
These include using an older chipset than what was originally designed for or using a RAID controller card that supports RAID 0 software-based RAID. Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but technology changes over time. So while we’ve tried our best to keep things up to date, we may miss some of the newer technologies. Please be sure to confirm any information that is critical to your interests.
Until 2010 called Matrix RAID, is a firmware-based RAID solution built into a wide range of Intel chipset show does it work?: IRST works in conjunction with your standard operating system to improve the read and write speeds. How much it helps depends on a number of factors, including what kind of drive you have. Standard SATA drives can see anywhere from 50% to 100% faster speeds, while SSDs can see up to 200% speed gains, depending on which version of IRST you have.
Benefits and Features
Why use Rapid Storage Technology (RST)? RST gives you a broad set of capabilities. You can create, delete, and manage RAID volumes across all drives in your system, including Serial ATA (SATA), Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and Solid State Drives (SSD). You can convert between different RAID levels. For example, RST also provides self-monitoring capabilities that detect problems before they affect performance. If a drive fails or has degraded performance or if there’s an incompatible mix of drives—the onboard controller detects these issues and alerts you so that you can take action.
What is Intel Rapid Storage Technology? The software automatically moves hot data to fast drives for better overall performance and endurance. And finally, you can use RST on your notebook computer without having to purchase a separate card; it comes built into most new Intel Core processors.
Note Software included on a drive only works with systems that have an identical chipset as the one used for testing purposes by Intel’s Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) during development. Check with your ISV for details. Benefits: What are some benefits of using RST? Provides protection against data loss due to disk failure Provides support for a variety of storage configurations, such as SATA, SAS, and SSD Supports online capacity expansion through volume resizing Improves performance through reading/write caching Requirements.
RLX Technology There are two main requirements when using RST technology: hardware and operating system support. In terms of hardware, make sure that your motherboard supports RST. To find out whether your board does, check its specifications. In terms of operating system support, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is required to utilize RST features at their full potential. System Compatibility: What systems are compatible with RST?
This includes 9 series chipsets, 8 series chipsets, 7 series chipsets, 6 series chipsets, 5 series chipsets, and 4 series chipsets. All of these platforms run 32-bit versions of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition as well as 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.
They also run 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2003, 2008, and 2008 R2. *Note: Some functions may not be available with certain versions or service packs (SPs) installed. See your product documentation for more information about specific platform compatibility.