Cache-Friendly Code is Way Faster Than You Think

Programmers often focus on algorithmic complexity, overlooking the impact of modern hardware's memory hierarchy on performance. This article experimentally compares the performance differences between sequential, indirect, and random memory access. Results show sequential access is fastest, while random access is an order of magnitude slower. Optimizing memory access patterns is crucial for performance; even simple operations see massive gains from optimized memory layout. The article advises considering memory access patterns when designing data structures and algorithms, for example, placing frequently used data contiguously in memory to leverage CPU caching and avoid cache misses.