Is this HW or SW RAID?

Supported operating systems is the give away there. All controller card RAID or SATA will need drivers to make the controllers active. Windows will automatically detect the hardware and ask for those. Each model should already include a driver disk that comes with it.
 
I'd think most any RAID card would be hardware based. However, if it has a bios onboard, that's basically a sure sign it is hardware based(which both appear to have a bios...)
 
Regardless of an onboard bios programming Windows will still look for drivers in order to direct power and signals to and from the card itself. As you will note the option at post time to press F6 for SATA or RAID. Upon installing Windows a driver disk for either is then placed in the drive for loading.

Operating Systems SupportedWindows 98/98SE/ME/XP/NT4.0/2000

Why not WIN 95? Drivers available won't work on 95. Drivers themselves are software while the cards wouldn't need programming softwares like a video or sound card would for changing resolutions or changing speaker settings.

Drivers for: UltraATA 133 PCI RAID http://www.siig.com/driver.asp?pid=439
 
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The Other One is right. If it has a controller card with a BIOS and a processor it is hardware based. You can clearly see the controller chips in the center of the picture.

By the way, the Highpoint, I think, is the better card.
 
Yeah, and incidentally the Highpoint has an ATA133 controller built into it. That will be cool if you can pick up a couple of drives that have that capability (I have a few here, the D740X from Maxtor that I just love).
 
Now you just know PC Eye is going to come in here trumpeting his superiority, spouting irrelevant links and trying to come across that he actually did know what he is talking about... So in prepartation for that I did a bit of research.

Fremont, CA -July 20,2001-Highpoint Technologies, Inc. today announced the release of the
HPT372 (the controller in the rocketraid card).The new generation of HPT37X series RAID controller family that integrates the latest ATA133 technology.

HPT372 PCI Dual Channels Ultra DMA/ATA 133 RAID Controller is designed for motherboard ATA RAID, comply with PCI2.2 Spec and support up to 133MB/Sec PCI data transfer rate. The HPT372 is fully backward compatible with all hard devices - including Ultra DMA/ATA100,66, 33 and EIDE Fast ATA-2. HPT372 co-exists with motherboard IDE ports, It will add the motherboard's IDE ports up to four.
With the inclusion of Hot Swap capabilities, user will have the chance to remove IDE devices from the system without shutting the system down. Another important features is RAID 0, 1 and 0+1 support, which allows users to connect multiple hard drives for data mirroring and striping applications for data-redundancy concern and performance.

HPT372 can be used for 3D Graphic applications, Video Editing, CAD Development, entry-level servers, and other fields that require the accelerated performance and fault tolerance features.

HighPoint Technologies, Inc. provides major operating software support for its products including Windows 95/98, Windows ME (Millennium Edition), Windows NT 3,51/4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP ,SCO Unix, and Linux (SuSE, RedHat, Debian, and Turbo). The HPT372 takes full advantage of the PCI Power Management 1.1 capability, and one PCI function supports two independent ATA channels


MILPITAS, Calif., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Adaptec, Inc.
(Nasdaq: ADPT - news), the global leader in storage access
solutions, announced today that it is collaborating with
HighPoint Technologies, Inc., a leading designer of ATA RAID
controller chips, to develop next-generation ATA RAID product offerings.
Gartner Dataquest projects that ATA RAID revenues will grow more than 50 percent per year compounded annually,
exceeding $600 million by 2005. By working together,
HighPoint and Adaptec are tapping into the fastest growing
RAID market segment and extending Adaptec's ``RAID
Everywhere'' initiative to bring the capabilities and benefits of RAID to a broader market.

" HighPoint is pleased to have the opportunity to work with
Adaptec both on current and future products that bring
exceptional performance and consistent user satisfaction to
the ATA RAID markets,'' said Michael Whang, President of
HighPoint Technologies, Inc. ``By working with Adaptec, we
are able to extend our position in this important market, and bring data protection products to market at low price points.''

" We are now as well-positioned in the ATA RAID segment of the market, as we are in SCSI and Fibre Channel RAID,'' said Lee Caswell, vice president and general manager of Adaptec's Storage Solutions Group. ``We have successfully launched two industry-leading products in the last two months, and our HighPoint relationship is an important part of our ability to address the needs of price-sensitive customers using ATA disk drives.''
Joint development of an ATA RAID technology roadmap is an
expansion of the existing relationship between the two
companies. HighPoint's state-of-the-art HPT 370 chipset is
currently designed into Adaptec's recently announced ATA
RAID 2400A and ATA RAID 1200A products. The Adaptec
ATA RAID 2400A is targeted for use with entry-level servers
and workstations with up to four ATA disk drives, and is the
industry'sfirst ATA RAID controller to offer advanced RAID
unctionality previously only found in SCSI RAID products.

Adaptec's ATA RAID 1200A is ideally suited for sub entry-
level and rackmount server applications. HighPoint's HPT 370 chipset, integrated into both of these products, supports two independent ATA channels with 100 MB/sec transfer rate per channel. Both Adaptec ATA RAID products are shipping now.
Click to expand...

Just some interesting stuff to read.

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/news+events2.htm
 
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