New Features Introduced with the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) 8.2 Release for Windows*

The following information lists the new features introduced with the Intel® VROC 8.2 release for Windows*. To learn about the latest updates of Intel® VROC for Windows*, refer to the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) Release Notes for Windows*.

Support for Pre-Boot DMA

Intel® VROC introduces support for pre-boot DMA protection when the setting is enabled in the platform BIOS by the system manufacturer. DMA protection is a feature that is supported starting with Windows 10. It is supported on 64-bit IA processors with virtualization extensions, including VT-X.

Pre-Boot DMA Protection Enablement with Intel® VROC

A security feature limitation occurred when pre-boot DMA protection was enabled in BIOS while also Intel® VMD/VROC was enabled. This limitation no longer persists in the Intel® VROC 8.2.0.1981 release version. Both, pre-boot DMA and Intel® VROC, can be enabled at the same time without error messages or interruptions occurring.

NVMe* Secure Erase Via Out-of-Band (OOB) Support

Users will be able to erase all data permanently off NVMe* SSDs (secure erase) through OOB. When the action of secure erase is triggered on a drive through the OOB service, this drive during the sanitize process will change its state to Standby within the Intel® VROC Graphical User Interface (GUI) environment.

NVMe* Pass-Thru PPI and Storage Security Command PPI Support in Intel® VROC

When implementing a password security protection feature on NVMe* drives, SSCP provides the required command set for this feature. This protocol will be used not only in the DXE phase, but also in the PEI phase (DXE and PEI are all required for S0, S3 and S4, power on, hibernation, and resume).

Intel® VROC Pre-EFI Initialization Module (PEIM) Support (Update)

The limitation listed in the New Features Introduced with the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) 8.0 Release for Windows* has been implemented. Multiple Intel® Volume Management Device (Intel® VMD) controllers are supported.

UEFI Pre-EFI Initialization Module (PEIM) Driver

Intel® VROC introduces the Intel® VROC Pre-EFI Initialization Module (PEIM) to support BIOS recovery scenario during the boot.

• The Intel® VROC PEI module for SATA provides access to RAID volumes and SATA drives connected to Intel SATA controller.

  • GUID: {0xbcc5d5cb, 0x828c, 0x4fa1, {0x8a, 0x2a, 0xbf, 0x31, 0x1c, 0x2e, 0x61, 0x89}}

• The Intel® VROC PEI module for VMD provides access to RAID volumes and NVMe* drives connected to multiple Intel® VMD controllers.

  • GUID: {0x51f28c3b, 0xcfca, 0x4308, {0xb7, 0xdb, 0xc6, 0x82, 0xac, 0xcd, 0xe0, 0x8a}}

Both modules have common code base with PEI interface implementation (PEIM adapter) and RAID logic. The main difference between them is different transport implementations: AHCI with SATA and Intel® VMD with NVMe*. Every Intel® VROC PEI module installs two PEIM-to-PEIM interfaces (PPI), defined in the PI specification:

Provided PPI

• EFI_PEI_RECOVERY_BLOCK_IO_PPI (SATA and VMD)
• EFI_PEI_RECOVERY_BLOCK_IO2_PPI (SATA and VMD)
• EDKII_PEI_STORAGE_SECURITY_CMD_PPI (VMD)
• EDKII_PEI_NVM_EXPRESS_PASS_THRU_PPI (VMD)

Required PPI

• SATA Init Done PPI
• VMD Host Controller PPI

Block I/O PPIs are installed by the Intel® VROC PEI module only when EFI_PEI_BOOT_IN_RECOVERY_MODE_PPI is already installed prior to the Intel® VROC PEI module entry point.

Looking for more information about the Intel® VROC 8.2 release?

Check out the following resources:

• Known Issues with the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) 8.2 Release for Windows*
• Resolved Issues with the Intel® Virtual RAID on CPU (Intel® VROC) 8.2 Release for Windows*