Previous work has shown how the well-studied and SIMD-friendly Structure of Arrays (SOA) data layout strategy can speed up applications in high-performance computing compared to a traditional Array of Structures (AOS) data layout. However, a standard SOA layout cannot handle structures with inner arrays; such structures appear frequently in graph-based applications and object-oriented designs with associations of high multiplicity.

This work extends the SOA data layout to structures with array-typed fields. We present different techniques for inlining (embedding) inner arrays into an AOS or SOA layout, as well as the design and implementation of an embedded C++/CUDA DSL that lets programmers write such layouts in a notation close to standard C++. We evaluate several layout strategies with a traffic flow simulation, an important real-world application in transport planning.