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Memory Hierarchy Based Performance Review of Sorting Algorithms
"... Sorting is known to be one of the fundamental computing problems which continue to attract a great deal of research. It is evident that instruction count requirements of the key sorting algorithms are well understood. However, the cost of executing a sorting algorithm is influenced by factors apart ..."
Abstract
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Sorting is known to be one of the fundamental computing problems which continue to attract a great deal of research. It is evident that instruction count requirements of the key sorting algorithms are well understood. However, the cost of executing a sorting algorithm is influenced by factors apart from instruction count such as cache miss and page faults as well. There exist studies of sorting algorithms from memory hierarchy perspective, but these studies are stale and losing relevance in the context of modern computer architecture. We have experimented with Quicksort, Merge sort, and Heapsort to assess their respective performances in memory hierarchy of modern computing environments. Inferences derived from the outcome of the experiments have been presented in this paper. Empirical evidence confirms that Quicksort is still an excellent algorithm from memory hierarchy point of view. Also, it has been inferred that Merge sort is poor on large records because its page fault count is too high. Heapsort was found competitive enough to be considered as an algorithm of choice on large records in the view of its lower page fault count.

