Type-driven data layouts for improved vectorisation

Summary Vector instructions of modern CPUs are crucially important for the performance of compute‐intensive algorithms. Auto‐vectorisation often fails because of an unfortunate choice of data layout by the programmer. This paper proposes a data layout inference for auto‐vectorisation that identifies layout transformations that convert single instruction, multiple data‐unfavourable layouts of data structures into favourable ones. We present a type system for layout transformations, and we sketch an inference algorithm for it. Finally, we present some initial performance figures for the impact of the inferred layout transformations. They show that non‐intuitive layouts that are inferred through our system can have a vast performance impact on compute intensive programs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.