Compaq 3200 manual 12Understanding Drive Arrays

E-12Understanding Drive Arrays

For example, consider an operating system that typically requests data in

32-sector blocks (a sector contains 512 bytes of data). The Smart Array 3200 Controller distributes the data so that the first 32 sectors of data are on the first drive in the array. The Smart Array 3200 Controller continues distributing the next 32 sectors on the second drive, the next 32 sectors on the third drive, and so on. Evenly distributed user data across all drives in an array results in improved performance by allowing data access to all drives simultaneously.

DATA	DATA	DATA	DATA
1	1	1	1
2	2	2	2
3	3	3	3
4	4	4	4
5	5	5	5
6	6	6	6
7	7	7	7
8	8	8	8
9	9	9	9

Daz-9-11.EPS

Figure E-8. Data striping distributes data across all physical drives