A system and product for a DMA controller with multi-dimensional line-walking functionality is presented. A processor includes an intelligent DMA controller, which loads a line description that corresponds to a shape or line. The intelligent DMA controller moves through a memory map and retrieves data based upon the line description that includes a major step and a minor step. In turn, the intelligent DMA controller retrieves data from the shared memory without assistance from its corresponding processor. In one embodiment, the intelligent DMA controller may analyze a line using the rate of change along its minor axes in conjunction with locations where the line intersects subspaces and store array spans of contiguous memory along the line's major axis.