What kind of matrix multiplication algorithm is used in MATLAB?

I am making some benchmarking with several languages and trying to understand why MATLAB's matrix multiplication is so fast. In other words, what kind of matrix multiplication algorithm is used in MATLAB. By comparing C=A*B, or C=mtimes(A,B) with the iterative algorithm shown below, one can find out that the iterative algorithm is much slower for large matrices.

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

The purpose is explained here:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/vectorization.html

MATLAB uses BLAS and LAPACK perform these matrix operations:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/articles/matlab-incorporates-lapack.html

And some useful extra information:

http://undocumentedmatlab.com/blog/math-libraries-version-info-upgrade