Intel® Rapid Storage Technology
    9.5.0.1016 Alpha Release Notes


11 June 2009

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Supported Operating Systems

    Microsoft Windows 7*

    Microsoft Windows 7 x64 Edition*

    Microsoft Windows Vista*
    Microsoft Windows Vista x64 Edition*
    Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition*
    Microsoft Windows XP Professional*
    Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition

    Microsoft Windows Server 2008* ++
    Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition*++    
    Microsoft Windows Server 2003* ++
    Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition*++

    Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition*

++ Not available on mobile platforms

 

Revision History

Date

Driver Revision

Build Number

11 June 2009

9.5.0.1016 Alpha

1016

01 May 2009

9.5.0.1008 Pre-Alpha

1008

Notes:  

1. For Known issues prior to 9.5 refer to the Intel® Matrix Storage Manager 8.9.0.1023 Release Notes.

 

2. Windows XP is not support for Braidwood in this Alpha release

3. Possible issue where RST is slow to start on Windows XP or Vista with .NET 3.0

Issue description: Under certain network conditions, on systems with .NET 3.0, the RST application and notification icon (a.k.a. tray icon) may take about a minute to start.  

Resolution: Contact Microsoft* to receive the hot fix described by KB article 936707 or upgrade to .NET 3.5.

4. Possible Issue regarding File writes on Windows XP with Service Pack 2

Issue description: System hangs, ERROR_NO_SYSTEM_RESOURCES or ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_QUOTA observed when writing large numbers of files on Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

Resolution: Contact Microsoft* to receive the hot fix described by KB article 888413.

 

 

 

1: Supplemental Notes on RST 9.5 Alpha Featuring Braidwood Non Volatile Caching

 

1.1 General Known Issues

In addition to the known defects list provided in these release notes, there are several general points that are important for the OEM to understand when evaluating the NV cache feature of RST 9.5 (and RST in general) with this Alpha release:

 

- BugChecks (BSOD):  There are several RST specific BSOD codes in this Alpha and, given the nature of a Alpha code, it is expected that OEMs will experience these as they evaluate the caching capability or even some of the other new features (like Port Multiplier).  Please assure that all systems are configured for kernel mode dumps (not mini dumps) and no auto-restart and kindly provide all dump files along with standard sighting reporting information to your support representative.  When experiencing a BSOD, note that dump files may not always be written.  Following a BSOD, the user should power down the system (as opposed to warm reboot) completely.  Upon reboot, the RST OROM may display a series of messages regarding rebuild of data depending on the state of the cache at the time of the bug check.  This is normal and the system should continue to boot and at that point the dump file (if one was created) can be collected and testing may resume.  Common BugCheck codes include:

 

600n, 800n:  This series of BugChecks indicates specific internal driver conditions that can be fatal if processing is allowed to continue.

908n: Any BugCheck that begins with 908 is a general internal driver timeout.  It indicates that the driver needed to wait on another internal process that never completed.

8089: Indicates that there was a fatal error in the NV cache subsystem

8090: Indicates that an IO submitted to the NV cache subsystem has timed out and that attempts to recover from this timeout have failed

 

- OROM Messages:  For NV cached disks, the OROM may occasionally display a cached disk/volume as "Disabled" when booting/rebooting.  Refer to the user's manual for detailed information on the scenarios that can cause this and what specific steps to take when this is seen.  Until the issues driving this condition are resolved, the cached disk/volume is not usable (and if it is the boot volume, the system will not be able to boot).  If running with an NV cached disk the OROM may display a message "WARNING: NVM initialization still in progress…” may appear with up to a 15 second delay.  This message indicates that the NV firmware has taken an excessive (abnormal) amount of time to initialize and this behavior does not need to be reported however its occurrence should be considered an event that invalidates any boot time measurements that were affected.  These periodic excessive boot times will be addressed in upcoming releases.

 

- S3/S4 Issues:  The RST driver is heavily dependent on lower level firmware (and hardware) components in the system in order to reliably perform extended series of power state transitions without issues.  Depending on the platform being used (CRB or OEM) the BIOS and/or specific BIOS settings may impact the ability to perform power state testing.  Please report any issues to your support representative.  For Intel CRBs, ensure that ASPM (for desktop & mobile) as well as the Intel Ignition firmware (for desktop only) are disabled and for desktop turn off all C-states (see example below).

Disable C-States:

CPU C3 Report->Disabled

CPU C6 Report->Disabled

CPU C7 Report->Disabled

Package C State Limit->C0

Enhanced C1->Disabled

C1 State Auto Demotion->Disabled

C3 State Auto Demotion->Disabled

 

Disable ASPM:

Advanced-->PCI Subsystem Settings-->ASPM Support-->Disabled

 

Disable SKU management:

Intel Ignition SKU Configuration -> Intel Ignition SKU” = Disabled  

 

- Performance: 

·         PCMark® Vantage overall suite showing positive results on 4GB, 8GB, 16GB modules, customers should validate performance results are within published range on their platforms

 

·         Mobile Mark 07 power savings – initial power measurements with 8GB module showing 500mW savings

 

·         Sysmark 2007 – known performance issue with 4GB and 8GB modules – engineering is targeting several areas for performance optimization in Beta that will improve 4/8/16 GB results – customers should align performance testing to the Beta release

 

·         Boot performance – engineering also looking at performance improvements for boot, customers should align boot measurements to Beta

 

- S State Transition:  There is a known issue with the firmware in that there is a possibility of data corruption when doing S state transitions (so far only observed with S3) therefore these scenarios should be avoided when testing with this Alpha release as results may be unpredictable.  This will be fixed in an up coming release.

 

- S3 Resume Times:  There is a known issue with the firmware resume time coming out of S3 when NV cache is enabled.  It can take anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds for an S3 resume to complete during which time video will be available and the mouse will move, however the sys will appear unresponsive to user interaction until the 5 to 30 second delay period has ended.  This behavior will be corrected in upcoming releases.

 

 

1.2 Additional Information

- Using the Intel mobile CRB, it has been reported that SATA port 0 may sometimes fail to enumerate on power on / reboot scenarios (issue has also been seen on other ports but with much less frequency).  Please refer to the BIOS release notes for full details, it is recommended that RST be used on SATA ports other than 0 to minimize the impact of this issue during Alpha evaluation. 

 

 

Resolved Issues

Resolved Issues in 9.5.0.1016 Alpha

Reference No 

Description

Affected OS's

2724170

DRIVER SHUTDOWN HANG can eventually result in : Sysmark benchmark renders OS and BWD Modules disabeld after full system iteration

Vista

2724213

Driver allows Creation of Accelerated Disk/Volume when not supported by OROM

Vista

2724202

With two attached volumes OROM always detects a dirty shutdown

Vista

2724209

NVM: "Multiple users cannot run the application at same time" error message box comes up when inserting drives

Vista

2724241

NVM – User Interface Shows Two Devices That Are Associated with NVM Attributes (SSD and Cache)

Vista

2724108

User Interface for Intel® Rapid Storage Technology: When user pins new applications the pinned app size shown immediately on the right pane is incorrect

Win7

2724266

Help content - string update need for Troubleshooting Flash Memory

Vista Windows XP

2724193

Help content - string update required for Getting Started topic

Vista Win7 Windows XP

2724200

Help Search - Need to change background color of tables - found terms have the same highlight color

Vista Windows XP

 

Known Issues

Known Issues in 9.5.0.1016 Alpha

Reference No 

Description

Affected OS's

2724264

The User Interface for Intel® Rapid Storage Technology does not show lock Icon on a locked volume

Vista

2724083

Graphic is cut in the Help file Volume type page

Vista

2724243

The User Interface tray icon for the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology shows busy Icon when a locked volume is present

Vista

2724239

SATA transfer mode for ATAPI device does not display in Mbyte/sec

Vista

2724279

THA_All error or warning messages can be resized and create cut text

Vista

2724239

SATA transfer mode for ATAPI device does not display in Mbyte/sec

Vista

2724112

PTB PTG DEU - On the list of available ports and devices the words "Internal" and "External" need to be either masculine feminine or neuter depending on the noun that precedes it.

Vista

2723959

In Win7, a disk is put to offline after deleting RAID1 or Intel® Rapid Recover Technology volume

Vista

2724310

Intel® Control Center Does Not Show Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Application Link

Vista, Win7

2724338

Volume cache check failing

Vista, Win7, Win7-64, Windows2008

2724300

Hot Unplug Detect not working with Exar Port Multipliers

Vista

2688572

During Volume creation the tray icon shows 2 significant digits more than necessary

Vista, Vista-64, Windows XP, Windows XP-64

2688583

User Interface for Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Password Protected Status is Shown as “Unknown”

Vista, Windows XP-64

2724409

When removing Master disk of a non-system Recovery volume "IAStor UI has stopped working" message appears

Win7

2724497

"Dirty" Maximized Cached Disk becomes Disabled after booting to DOS USB

Win7, Win7-64

2723976

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology driver is statically allocating an array in the crash dump

Vista, Windows XP-64

2723743

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology driver doesn't properly disable LPM when device that only supports HIPM is connected

Windows2008

2724074

The Preference Screen in the User Interface does not warn of changes if User Interface is closed

Windows XP

2723619

THA Help file Index is not alphabetizing correctly

Vista, Vista-64

2723624

L10N-I18N JPN/CHS The register symbol is corrupted in the title bar

Windows2008, Windows XP

2723928

HEB The checkmarks in the checkboxes need to go the same direction as the green checkmarks on the left-hand side of the UI.

Vista, Vista-64, Windows XP

2723625

L10N I18N: JPN, KOR, CHS, CHT characters are displayed as if they are Bolded through out UI & Help in XP

Windows XP