RAID LEVEL 3: Byte Level Striping with Dedicated Parity Disk

RAID 3, which is rarely used in practice, consists of byte-level striping with a dedicated parity disk.
RAID 3 requires at least 3 drives to implement.

Characteristics & Advantages

  • Very high Read and Write data transfer rate
  • Insignificant impact on throughput due to disk failure
  • The ratio of Parity disks to data disks is low, which means higher efficiency

Disadvantages

  • Transaction rate equal to a single disk drive at best
  • Controller design is fairly complex
  • Very difficult and resource intensive as a software implementation
  • Cannot provide service in multiple requests simultaneously

Recommended Applications

  • Image and Video Editing
  • Live streaming
  • Prepress Applications
  • Any application that require high throughput