Design and implementation of a high-performance, modular, sorting engine

This paper presents the design and implementation of a modular, expandable and high-performance sorter based on the rebound sorting algorithm. This single chip rebound sorter can sort 24, 32-bit or 64-bit records of 2´s complement or unsigned data in either ascending or descending order. The modular design of the sorter allows direct cascading of chips for sorting more than 24 records. The monolithic sorter is implemented in 2.0 μm CMOS technology, in a frame of 7.9 mm×9.2 mm, which supports its 84 I/O. A pipelining scheme was used to achieve a sustained throughput (of cascaded sorting chips) of 10 MHz, while a scan-path was used to allow external control of memory elements for testing purposes. The design of the sorter reported in this paper is a significant improvement in terms of functionality, versatility and performance, over previously reported monolithic sorter circuits