NDLI: Optimizing sorting algorithms by using sorting networks

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Codish, Michael Cruz Filipe, Luís Nebel, Markus Schneider Kamp, Peter
Copyright Year	2016
Abstract	In this paper, we show how the theory of sorting networks can be applied to synthesize optimized general-purpose sorting libraries. Standard sorting libraries are often based on combinations of the classic Quicksort algorithm, with insertion sort applied as base case for small, fixed, numbers of inputs. Unrolling the code for the base case by ignoring loop conditions eliminates branching, resulting in code equivalent to a sorting network. By replacing it with faster sorting networks, we can improve the performance of these algorithms. We show that by considering the number of comparisons and swaps alone we are not able to predict any real advantage of this approach. However, significant speed-ups are obtained when taking advantage of instruction level parallelism and non-branching conditional assignment instructions, both of which are common in modern CPU architectures. Furthermore, a close control of how often registers have to be spilled to memory gives us a complete explanation of the performance of different sorting networks, allowing us to choose an optimal one for each particular architecture. Our experimental results show that using code synthesized from these efficient sorting networks as the base case for Quicksort libraries results in significant real-world speed-ups.
Starting Page	559
Ending Page	579
Page Count	21
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09345043
Journal	Formal Aspects of Computing
Volume Number	29
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	1433299X
Language	English
Publisher	Springer London
Publisher Date	2016-11-04
Publisher Place	London
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Subject Keyword	Sorting algorithms Sorting networks Instruction-level parallelism Out-of-order execution Math Applications in Computer Science Theory of Computation Computational Mathematics and Numerical Analysis
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Theoretical Computer Science Software

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Discovering applications of higher order functions through proof planning

Using Event-B to construct instruction set architectures

Amílcar Sernadas

Institution Morphisms

Simple linear string constraints

Computing Permutation Encodings

Three Inadequate Models

Knaster-Tarski Revisited

The Ancient Theory of Mind

Optimizing sorting algorithms by using sorting networks

Similar Documents

Discovering applications of higher order functions through proof planning

Using Event-B to construct instruction set architectures

Amílcar Sernadas

Institution Morphisms

Simple linear string constraints

Computing Permutation Encodings

Three Inadequate Models

Knaster-Tarski Revisited

The Ancient Theory of Mind

Optimizing sorting algorithms by using sorting networks