Hardware implementation of recursive sorting algorithms

The paper describes methods of data sorting in hardware using parallel recursive algorithms over a binary tree. The implementation is based on communicating hierarchical finite state machines interacting with dedicated memories. Distinctive features of the proposed methods are balancing the tree to increase the performance of hardware implementation and the use of sorting networks combined with operations over the tree. Parallel processing is achieved through constructing and traversing different branches of the tree at the same time. The results of prototyping in FPGA and experiments demonstrate applicability and effectiveness of the proposed technique.