Towards optimal parallel radix sorting

Abstract

The authors propose a radix sorting algorithm for n m-bit numbers (where m= Omega (log n) and polynomially upper bounded in n) that runs in O(t(n)log m) time, on any PRAM with mp(n)/logn logm O(logn)-bit processors; p(n) and t(n) are the number of processors and time needed for any deterministic algorithm to sort n logn-bit numbers stably (integer sorting) on the same type of PRAM as used by the radix sorting algorithm. The proposed algorithm has the same factor of inefficiency (if any) as that of the integer sorting algorithm used by it.<>