Abstract

The compare and branch sequences required in a traditional sort algorithm can not efficiently exploit multiple execution units present in currently available high performance RISC processors. This is because of the long latency of the compare instructions and the sequential algorithm used in sorting. With the increased level of integration on a chip, this trend is expected to continue. We have developed new sort algorithms which eliminate almost all the compares, provide functional parallelism which can be exploited by multiple execution units, significantly reduce the number of passes through keys, and improve data locality. These new algorithms outperform traditional sort algorithms by a large factor. For the Datamation disk to disk sort benchmark (one million 100-byte records), at SIGMOD'94, Chris Nyberg et al presented several new performance records using DEC alpha processor based systems. We have implemented the Datamation sort benchmark using our new sort algorithm on a desktop ...

Citations

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