An Efficient Hardware Implementation of TimSort and MergeSort Algorithms Using High Level Synthesis

Abstract

Sorting algorithms are one of the most commonly used in computer science. They can be seen as a pillar for some applications such as decision support systems, path planning, etc. However, sorting large number of elements needs high computation rate. Consequently, accelerating sorting algorithms using hardware implementation is an interesting solution to speed up computations. The purpose of this paper is to develop a hardware accelerated version of TimSort and MergeSort algorithms from high level descriptions. The algorithms are implemented using Zynq-7000 xilinx platform as part of real time decision support for avionic applications. As experimental results, we compare the performance of two algorithms in terms of execution time and resource utilization. We showed that TimSort ranges from 1.07x to 1.16x faster than MergeSort when optimized hardware is used.