AHCI and RAID on HP Elite 8100 Business PCs

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Basics of AHCI and RAID Technology
Definitions
Table 1 Table 1. Basic AHCI and RAID Definitions
AHCI Advanced Host Controller Interface, a specification for hardware and software, is a register
interface for SATA, intended to add higher speed, NCQ and other features.
ATA Advanced Technology Attachment.
BIOS Basic Input/Output System, also known as system ROM.
Chipset Term used to define a collection of integrated components required to make a PC function.
HDD Hard disk drive
PCH Platform Controller Hub, inside this component resides the mass storage controller. PCH is part
of the Intel Q57 chipset.
IDE Integrated Drive Electronics
INF
Information file (.inf) used by Microsoft
®
operating systems that support the Plug & Play feature.
When installing a driver, this file provides the operating system needed information about driver
filenames, driver components, and supported hardware.
Migration Term used to describe the movement of data from one configuration or usage model to another.
NCQ Native Command Queuing.
Option ROM Piece or software module inside the System BIOS which provides extended support for a partic-
ular piece of hardware. The RAID Option ROM provides boot support for RAID volumes as well
as a user interface for managing and configuring the system's RAID volumes.
PCI Peripheral Components Interface.
PCIe PCI express. A serial version of PCI.
PnP Plug and Play
RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks.
ROM Read Only Memory.
SATA Serial ATA
Strip Set of data on a single hard drive in a RAID 0 volume.
Stripe Group of all strips going horizontally across all the hard drive members of a RAID volume.