SpeicherArrays

SpeicherArrays are a family of array data structures designed for high-performance data processing in memory-rich environments. They emphasize memory locality, scalable storage, and efficient resizing, making them suitable for large datasets that exceed the capacity of a single contiguous allocation.

A SpeicherArray stores elements in fixed-size blocks or pages. A lightweight index maps logical positions to a block and an offset within that block. This design yields a logically contiguous interface while allowing non-contiguous physical storage. Multidimensional shapes can be represented with shape metadata and stride values, enabling efficient access patterns.

Operations include constant-time element access, slicing, and iteration. Append and resize may involve allocating new blocks; elements can be copied between blocks. Views provide non-owning slices without copying. SpeicherArrays can be persisted by backing stores that support memory-mapped or durable memory.

Performance is cache-friendly when access patterns traverse within blocks, making them suitable for streaming and batch operations. Limitations include fragmentation, overhead of index tables, and potential performance penalties for random access across blocks. They may require specialized allocators or memory managers.

Applications include high-performance computing, large-scale data analytics, in-memory databases, and scientific simulations. They complement contiguous arrays by relaxing single-block contiguity while preserving familiar interfaces.

See also: Arrays, Memory-mapped files, Persistent memory, Vector (data structure), Block storage.