1. An apparatus for performing virtual identification (VID) to physical identification (PID) translation for data elements to be accessed within local memory of a processing element (PE) whereby a direct memory access (DMA) controller can access PE local memories according to their VIDs, the apparatus comprising: an array of multiple PEs each having local PE memory; a DMA controller; and a memory maintained in the DMA controller for storing a processing element VID-to-PID table mapping processing element VIDs to processing element PIDs utilized by the DMA controller to access local memories according to their VIDs.