Dell manual Glossary, 237

Glossary

Array—A grouping of hard disk drives combines the storage space on the hard drives into a single segment of contiguous storage space. The RAID controller can group hard drives on one or more channels into an array. A hot spare drive does not participate in an array.

Array Management Software—Software that provides common control and management for a disk array. Array Management Software most often executes in a disk controller or intelligent host bus adapter, but it can also execute in a host computer. When it executes in a disk controller or adapter, Array Management Software is often called firmware.

Array Spanning—Array spanning by a logical drive combines storage space in two arrays of hard drives into a single, contiguous storage space in a logical drive. The logical drive can span consecutively numbered arrays, each having the same number of hard drives. Array spanning promotes RAID level 1 to RAID level 10. See also Disk Spanning, and Spanning.

Asynchronous Operations—Operations that are not related to each other in time and can overlap. The concept of asynchronous I/O operations is central to independent access arrays in throughput-intensive applications.

ATA —(Advanced Technology Attachment) Also known at IDE (Integrated Device Electronics), this is a type of hard disk drive interface in which the controller electronics are integrated onto the drive itself. A separate adapter card is no longer needed, which reduces interface costs and makes it easier to implement firmware.

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