ATARAID(4)						   BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual 						ATARAID(4)

NAME

     ataraid -- software BIOS RAID

SYNOPSIS

     pseudo-device ataraid
     ld* at ataraid? vendtype ? unit ?

DESCRIPTION

     The ataraid driver provides support for BIOS-based software RAID controllers.  These are devices which have some simple support for several
     basic RAID levels (often RAID 0 and RAID 1), but which require software support to actually perform the RAID function.  The BIOS support is
     largely just to create and recognize the array so that it may be a boot device.

     The driver currently supports RAID formats from:
	   o   Adaptec HostRAID (found in Intel 6300ESB)
	   o   Intel MatrixRAID
	   o   JMicron RAID
	   o   nVidia MediaShield
	   o   Promise FastTrak
	   o   Via V-RAID (found in many VIA-based motherboards)

     Status of the logical disk as well as the disks associated with it, can be viewed through the bioctl(8) utility.

SEE ALSO

     ld(4), bioctl(8)

HISTORY

     The ataraid driver first appeared in NetBSD 2.0.

AUTHORS

     The ataraid driver was originally adapted from FreeBSD by Jason Thorpe <thorpej@NetBSD.org>.

BUGS

     Not all features of the software RAID are currently recognized or supported.  For example, the Adaptec support doesn't recognize when a RAID
     1 should be in a ``building'' state, and it does not do the right thing.

     At least part of the reason for this is that the publically-available information on these formats is quite limited.

BSD
								September 16, 2008							       BSD