full-disc partition (was: RAID on raw partitions)

[Edgar Fuß <ef%math.uni-bonn.de@localhost>]

> There are two meanings of `raw' as applied to disk partitions.
Ah, I see. Thanks.

> This is `raw' in that it bypasses partitioning
> allowing access to the whole disk regardless of partitioning.
It looks that I remember incorrectly what ws@ taught me back in the days
how the ``full disc'' partition works.
What I remember is that (let's assume sparc) partition ``c'' was actually
present in the disklabel and it was just by convention that one would
allocate that 0-$. The only magic I thought there was is that in case
the kernel can't find a disklabel, it would invent one having a single
``c'' partition spanning the whole disc. But then, due to the 32-bit-
limitation of the disklabel structure, it couldn't make a ``c'' partition
spanning 3TB.

Is my memory wrong? Has that been changed?