Definition:

The dependence equation

• A dependence occurs between two statements and (not necessarily distinct), when there exists a pair of loop iterations and , such that a memory reference in may refer to the same location as memory reference in .
• This might occur if and refer to some common array A
• Suppose refers to A[ ]
• Suppose refers to A[ ]
• A dependence of some kind occurs between and if there exists a solution to the equation

  

  for integer values of and lying within the loop bounds