The extension defines a stride mechanism that lets an application choose to keep all data staggered in a single array. For example, you could combine color, vertex, and edge data and access each type as needed using the stride number. This extension also supports the rendering of individual array elements, each specified as an index into the enabled arrays.
Note: Using the vertex array extension may lead to performance improvements or performance deterioration. While using the extension reduces the number of function calls your application has to make, there is added overhead for accessing the data in the array. The break-even point differs depending on the system the application is running on. See "Optimizing Use of the Vertex Array Extension" for information on the accelerated cases on RealityEngine systems. On Silicon Graphics systems, single-array storage provides better performance. The extension has been optimized for floats but not for other data types. You should run some performance tests to determine whether using vertex arrays is really appropriate for your application.