Efficient sorting with CCD's and magnetic bubble memories

The use of sorting in various computer-related applications such as database management, is well established. Normally, sorting is implemented by employing a combination of hardware and software techniques. In this correspondence we examine the utility of serial-shifting nature of the charge-coupled device (CCD) and the magnetic bubble memories for achieving low-cost sorting within the secondary storage. The radix-sort method has been found to be very suitable for this purpose. Five different memory organizations implementing radix sort have been described in detail and their relative merits are also outlined.