Noninterleaved

Noninterleaved refers to a data organization method in which the components of a dataset are stored in separate, contiguous blocks rather than interleaved together. The term is used across various domains, including graphics, audio, and memory architecture, to describe a layout that keeps individual channels or components isolated from one another.

In imaging and video, noninterleaved data is often called planar or nonpacked. Each color channel or component (for example, red, green, and blue) is stored in its own plane or buffer. This contrasts with interleaved or packed formats, where samples from multiple channels are stored consecutively (for example, RGBRGB). Planar formats can simplify per-channel processing, compression, and memory alignment, which can improve certain workflows and cache efficiency. However, they may require additional data shuffling when operations involve multiple channels simultaneously. TIFF files, for instance, can use planar configuration where color channels are stored in separate planes, while many other formats or codecs use interleaved representations.

In audio, noninterleaved or multichannel data stores each channel in its own separate buffer, whereas interleaved audio mixes samples from all channels in a single stream. Noninterleaved arrangements can simplify channel-specific processing, editing, and sample rate conversion, at the cost of more complex buffering when channel data must be combined for playback.

In memory and data storage design, noninterleaved layouts describe data that is not distributed across multiple interleaved banks or interleaved memory modules. This can affect access latency, bandwidth, and parallelism, depending on the architecture and use case.

Overall, noninterleaved denotes a separation of components into distinct, contiguous blocks, preferred in certain processing workflows and data pipelines where per-channel or per-component access is advantageous.