A method for generating a sequence of memory addresses for a multi-dimensional data structure and an address generation unit are disclosed. The address generation unit includes an ADDRESS register, a STRIDE register, and a plurality skip generators, each having SKIP, SPAN and COUNT registers. An address value is initialized to a first address and each COUNT register is initialized. For each address of the sequence an address value is output and a stride value is added to the address value. For each dimension of the data structure the COUNT register associated with the dimension is updated as each address is generated. For all dimensions, when the COUNT register value becomes zero, the skip value associated with the dimension is added to the address value and its COUNT register is reset to a specified value.