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\documentclass{acmabs}

\begin{document}

\Journal{Journal of the ACM}

\refkey{NodineV95}

\title{Greed Sort: Optimal Deterministic Sorting on Parallel Disks}

\author{Mark~H. Nodine \and Jeffrey~Scott Vitter}

\Pages{919--933}

\Month{July}

\Year{1995}

\Volume{42}

\Number{4}

\maketitle

\begin{abstract}

We present an algorithm for sorting efficiently with parallel, two-level
  memories. Our main result is an elegant, easy-to-implement, optimal,
  \emph{deterministic} algorithm for external sorting with $D$ disk drives.
  This results answers in the affirmative the open problem posed by Vitter and
  Shriver of whether an optimal algorithm exists that is deterministic. Our
  measure of performance is the number of parallel input/output (I/O)
  operations, in which each of the $D$ disks can simultaneously transfer a
  block of~$B$ contiguous records. We assume that internal memory can hold $M$
  records. Our algorithm sorts $N$ records in the optimal bound of
  $\Theta((N/BD) \log (N/B)/\log (M/B))$ deterministically, and thus it
  improves upon Vitter and Shriver's optimal randomized algorithm as well as
  the well-known deterministic but nonoptimal technique of disk striping. It is
  also practical to implement.

\end{abstract}

\begin{categories}

B.4.4 [worst-case analysis]; F.1.2 [parallelism and concurrency]; F.2.2
  [sorting and searching]; E.5 [sorting/searching]

\end{categories}

\begin{terms}

Algorithms

\end{terms}

\begin{keywords}

I/O complexity, parallel disks, parallel I/O, merge sort

\end{keywords}

\end{document}
