StrideA

StrideA is a term used in computing to describe a parameter that defines the spacing between consecutive elements accessed in memory during iteration, processing, or data loading. It is commonly employed to optimize data access patterns for cache locality and vector processing by controlling how data elements are fetched from memory.

Definition and usage

StrideA can be a fixed integer or a sequence of integers that specify offsets between successive reads. The value of strideA effectively determines which elements are loaded in a given pass and how far the next access moves in memory. Properly chosen, strideA helps keep data within the same cache line or cache set, enabling more efficient use of memory bandwidth and processor prefetchers. In multi-dimensional data, strideA is often interpreted relative to the chosen data layout (row-major or column-major) and may be adjusted to traverse rows, columns, or diagonals with minimal cache misses.

Implementation considerations

Choosing strideA impacts cache behavior, memory bandwidth, alignment, and vectorization. A stride that matches cache-line boundaries can improve throughput, while irregular or large strides may cause cache misses and degraded performance. Programs may compute strideA dynamically based on data shape, hardware characteristics, or workload phases, or use a fixed stride for simplicity and portability.

Applications

StrideA concepts appear in high-performance computing, image and signal processing, database query engines, and machine learning data pipelines where controlled data access patterns can yield measurable performance gains.

See also

Stride (computing), cache locality, vectorization, data layout.