This RAID controller implementation is an expansion type card that has a built-in RAID processor sometimes called an I/O processor. In some cases, a hardware RAID controller will be set up as an independent small computer system dedicated to your RAID application, offloading all tasks from the host computer. With hardware RAID, your controllers can either be card-based as a discrete, physical card or they can be a ROC which stands for “RAID-on-Chip” technology which is integrated hardware that comes with its own motherboard. The role of the hardware RAID controller is to manage your hard drive disks and present them to your host computer as one or more logical units. In this implementation, all hard drive disks are connected to a RAID controller which will physically control and support your RAID configuration. A hardware RAID solution is a dedicated processing system that contains its own processor and memory for running your RAID array.
