Two-dimensional vector masking for improving the performance of matrix multiplication

A computer system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
• receiving a request for performing a matrix-multiplication operation between a first matrix and a second matrix;
• determining a vector length of registers provided by the processor, the vector length corresponding to a number of elements of the first or second matrix held by a respective register;
• and
• performing the matrix-multiplication operation to obtain a third matrix, the matrix-multiplication operation comprising a number of iterations, each of which comprising:
• determining a number of remainder rows based on a total number of rows in the first matrix and the vector length;
• determining a number of remainder columns based on a total number of columns in the second matrix and the vector length;
• creating a first mask based on the number of remainder rows;
• creating a second mask based on the number of remainder columns;
• and
• transferring, from a memory associated with the processor to the registers, data associated with the first and second matrices based on the first and second masks, respectively.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the processor, a request for performing a matrix-multiplication operation between a first matrix and a second matrix;
• determining a vector length of registers provided by the processor, the vector length corresponding to a number of elements of the first or second matrix held by a respective register;
• and
• performing the matrix-multiplication operation to obtain a third matrix, the matrix-multiplication operation comprising a number of iterations, each of which comprising:
• determining a number of remainder rows based on a total number of rows in the first matrix and the vector length;
• determining a number of remainder columns based on a total number of columns in the second matrix and the vector length;
• creating a first mask based on the number of remainder rows;
• creating a second mask based on the number of remainder columns;
• and
• transferring, from a memory associated with the processor to the registers, data associated with the first and second matrices based on the first and second masks, respectively.