Fast sorting algorithms on reconfigurable array of processors with optical buses

The Reconfigurable Array with Spanning Optical Buses (RASOB) has recently received a lot of attention from the research community. By taking advantage of the unique properties of optical transmission, the RASOB provides flexible reconfiguration and strong connectivities with low hardware and control complexities. In this paper, we use this architecture for the design of efficient sorting algorithms on the 1-D RASOB and the 2-D RASOB. Our parallel sorting algorithm on the 1-D RASOB, which sorts N data items using N processors in O(k) time where k is the size of the data items to be in bits, is based on a novel divide-and-conquer scheme. On the other hand, our parallel sorting algorithm on the 2-D RASOB is based on the sorting algorithm on the 1-D RASOB in conjunction with the well known Rotatesort algorithm. This algorithm sorts N data items on a 2-D RASOB of size N in O(k) time. These sorting algorithms outperform state-of-the-art sorting algorithms on reconfigurable arrays of processors with electronic buses.