Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a computer readable memory including an array descriptor data structure which contains information on an organization of an array of data values in order to facilitate accesses into the array of data values. This array descriptor data structure includes a starting address of the array in the memory, and a group of extents, including an extent value for each dimension of the array, the extent value for a given dimension quantifying a number of elements in the given dimension. This array descriptor additionally includes a group of strides, including a stride value for each dimension of the array, the stride value of a given dimension quantifying a distance in array elements between consecutive array locations in the given dimension. Also included in the array descriptor data structure is a group of lower bound addresses, including a lower bound address for each dimension of the array.