RAID 3

RAID 3: Parallel transfer with Parity The data block is subdivided ("striped") and written on the data disks. Stripe parity is generated on Writes, recorded on the parity disk and checked on Reads.
RAID Level 3 requires a minimum of 3 drives to implement.

Advantages: Very high Read data transfer rate. Very high Write data transfer rate. Disk failure has an insignificant impact on throughput. Low ratio of ECC (Parity) disks to data disks means high efficiency. RAID 3 ensures that if one of the disks in the striped set (other than the parity disk) fails, its contents can be recalculated using the information on the parity disk and the remaining functioning disks. If the parity disk itself fails, then the RAID array is not affected in terms of I/O throughput but it no longer has protection from additional disk failures. Also, a RAID 3 array can improve the throughput of read operations by allowing reads to be performed concurrently on multiple disks in the set.

Disadvantages: Transaction rate equal to that of a single disk drive at best (if spindles are synchronized). Read operations can be time-consuming when the array is operating in degraded mode. Due to the restriction of having to write to all disks, the amount of actual disk space consumed is always a multiple of the disks' block size times the number of disks in the array. This can lead to wastage of space. Controller design is fairly complex. Very difficult and resource intensive to do as a "software" RAID.

Source: BytePail

lol henry u seem very knowledgeable about this RAID thing,well i'm still new to it thnx 4 the explanation,it's helpful ...