ARM supports unaligned memory accesses since v6. In most modern implementations, unaligned accesses falling entirely within a 16-byte aligned block have no pena

ARM supports unaligned memory accesses since v6. In most modern implementations, unaligned accesses falling entirely within a 16-byte aligned block have no penalty at all, while crossing 16-byte boundaries does impose a cost. If the locations of unaligned accesses are randomly distributed, this cost is still cheaper on average than accessing a byte at a time.