computer data storage Computer data storage or digital data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and Data storage, recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The cent ...

, Smart Response Technology (SRT, also called SSD Caching before it was launched) is a proprietary caching mechanism introduced in 2011 by

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

for their Z68

chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components on one or more integrated circuits that manages the data flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. The chipset is usually found on the motherboard of computers. Chips ...

(for the

Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge is the List of Intel codenames, codename for Intel's 32 nm process, 32 nm microarchitecture used in the second generation of the Intel Core, Intel Core processors (Intel Core i7, Core i7, Intel Core i5, i5, Intel Core i3, i3). The Sa ...

–series processors), which allows a

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard ...

solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuits to store data persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-state device, or solid-state disk. SSDs rely on non- ...

(SSD) to function as cache for a (conventional, magnetic)

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

(HDD). SRT is managed by Intel Rapid Storage Technology software version 10.5 or later, and implemented both in its

device driver In the context of an operating system, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabli ...

and in the Z68

motherboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see #Nomenclature, "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It ho ...

firmware In computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, h ...

( option ROM). It is available only when the (integrated) disk controller is configured in

RAID RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...

mode (but not

AHCI The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the Hardware register, register-level interface of Serial ATA (SATA) host controllers in a non-implementation-specific manner in its Intel chip ...

or IDE modes) by implementing a style of

0 striping. The user can select

write-back In computing, a cache ( ) is a hardware or software component that stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster; the data stored in a cache might be the result of an earlier computation or a copy of data stored elsew ...

(so-called maximized mode) or write-through (so-called enhanced mode) caching strategy. The maximum utilizable cache size on the SSD is 64 GB. Caching is done at the

logical block addressing Logical block addressing (LBA) is a common scheme used for specifying the location of blocks of data stored on computer storage devices, generally secondary storage systems such as hard disk drives. LBA is a particularly simple linear addressin ...

(LBA) level, not the file level. Shortly before the announcement of the new chipset, Intel also introduced the Intel 311 (Larson Creek), a 20 GB single-level cell (SLC) solid-state drive, which it markets as suitable for caching. , TRIM garbage collection is not supported for SRT caching devices, so the

SSD A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses Integrated circuit, integrated circuits to store data persistence (computer science), persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-stat ...

's performance is solely maintained by its own

. With the release of Ivy Bridge chipsets, support for SRT was provided in a larger variety of desktop chipsets, including Z77, Q77, H77 and C216 (but not Z75, Q75 or B75) as long as an "Intel Core Processor" is used. The situation is similar for Haswell desktop chipsets, with Z87, Q87, H87 and C226 listed as supported. The Ivy Bridge-E chipset X79 did not officially support SRT at launch, but some companies like

ASRock ASRock Inc. () is a Taiwanese manufacturer of motherboards, Industrial PC, industrial PCs and home theater PCs (HTPC). Established in 2002, it is owned by PEGATRON, a company part of the ASUS group. History ASRock was originally spun off fro ...

added support to their boards via BIOS updates. The arrival of Ivy Bridge also saw SRT support added to mobile chipsets: QS77, QM77, UM77 and HM77 support SRT, while HM76 does not. In 2012, Intel also introduced the 313 (Hawley Creek) caching SSD series (20 and 24 GB), advertised as also suitable for use in

ultrabook Ultrabook is a class of premium consumer-grade notebook computers. The term was originated by and is trademarked by Intel, replacing the earlier Centrino mobile platform. Introduced in 2011, they were originally marketed as featuring ultra thi ...

s. , SRT was limited to using at most 64 GB for caching, meaning that on larger SSDs the rest remains unused by the cache. The chipset exposes any excess storage space as a separate independent disk, which can be used for other purposes. In 2014, Intel has updated the SRT supported chipset list, to include th
Intel® 9 Series Chipset: H97, Z97
as well. Next year, support wasn't added for succeeding Z170 and H170 Skylake generation chipsets. SRT support was finally discontinued one year later in 2017 once Intel's own solution, Intel Optane, became available on 16 and 32 GB capacities. It required Kaby Lake processors and chipsets with intel citing better performance over SRT. This new SSD caching method left Z170/H170 chips and skylake processors without any kind of SSD caching available.

References

{{reflist, 30em Solid-state caching Intel chipsets

See also

References