NUMA Architecture

NUMA, or Non-Uniform Memory Access, is a memory design used in multi-processor systems where memory access time depends on the memory location relative to the processor. In a NUMA system, each CPU has its own local memory, and accessing memory attached to a different CPU is slower.

For high-performance trading, it is vital to ensure that a process and its data reside on the same NUMA node to avoid the latency penalty of cross-node memory access. Ignoring NUMA topology can lead to unpredictable performance spikes and increased latency.

By optimizing memory allocation and thread placement to be NUMA-aware, developers can achieve the consistent, high-speed performance required for complex derivatives trading.