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Author: dbader13

README.md

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+# PSort: Parallel Sorting using Sampling with Randomized and Deterministic Approaches
+
+Previous schemes for sorting on general-purpose parallel machines have
+had to choose between poor load balancing and irregular communication
+or multiple rounds of all-to-all personalized communication. This code
+provides a sample sort which uses only two rounds of regular
+all-to-all personalized communication in a scheme that yields very
+good load balancing with virtually no overhead. Moreover, unlike
+previous variations, our algorithm efficiently handles the presence of
+duplicate values without the overhead of tagging each element with a
+unique identifier. This algorithm was implemented in Split-C and run
+on a variety of platforms, including the Thinking Machines CM-5, the
+IBM SP-2, and the Cray Research T3D. This implementation of our new
+algorithm seems to outperform all similar algorithms known to the
+authors on these platforms, and its performance is invariant over the
+set of input distributions unlike previous efficient algorithms. Our
+results also compare favorably with those reported for the simpler
+ranking problem posed by the NAS Integer Sorting (IS) Benchmark.
+
+The code also provides a new deterministic parallel sorting algorithm
+based on the regular sampling approach. The performance compares
+closely to that of our random sample sort algorithm, which seems to
+outperform all similar algorithms known to the authors on these
+platforms. Together, their performance is nearly invariant over the
+set of input distributions, unlike previous efficient
+algorithms. However, unlike our randomized sorting algorithm, the
+performance and memory requirements of our regular sorting algorithm
+can be deterministically guaranteed.
+
+References:
+
+D. R. Helman, D. A. Bader, and J. Já Já . "A Randomized Parallel Sorting Algorithm With an Experimental Study," Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 52(1):1-23, 1998.
+
+D.R. Helman, J. Já Já , D.A. Bader. "A New Deterministic Parallel Sorting Algorithm With an Experimental Evaluation," ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics, 3(4):1-24, 1998.