RAID controller
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A RAID controller is a device which manages the physical storage units in a RAID system and presents them to the computer as logical units. The controller can be internal to a computer, either as an Expansion card or embedded on the motherboard, or it can be located in an independent enclosure, such as a disk array or NAS (network-attached storage) server. Multiple physical disk drives may be presented as a single RAID logical volume, perhaps using some of the capacity of the disks to provide data protection via a redundancy scheme.
External disk arrays are usually purchased as an integrated subsystem of RAID controllers, disk drives, power supplies, and management software. RAID adapters for use internal to a PC or server are often sold as separate commodities to which commodity disk drives are attached.
RAID controllers typically use one of the following buses to communicate with the physical disks:
The logical drives are generally presented to the operating system as a SCSI disk drive using a vendor specific device driver interface.
References
Storage Basics: Choosing a RAID Controller, May 7, 2004, By Ben Freeman[1]
ORACLE FAQ Glossary of Terms, Nov 12, 2005, Frank Naudé http://www.orafaq.com/glossary/faqglosr.htm
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