A Design for a List Merging Network

• Published in: IEEE transactions on computers Vol. C-28; no. 6; pp. 406 - 413
• Main Author: Hollaar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-06-1979
• Subjects: Backend processors; binary tree networks; computer system architecture; inverted file databases; nonnumeric processing; pipelined networks; sorted list merging; special-purpose LSI processors; system design
• ISSN: 0018-9340; 1557-9956
• DOI: 10.1109/TC.1979.1675380

In inverted file database systems (and in a number of other applications), much of the processing consists of merging two or more previously sorted lists based on a Boolean expression. Conventional general purpose computers are not well suited for this type of operation, with even well written programs utilizing less than 10 percent of the available memory capacity for actual processing of data. However, a low-cost special purpose backend processor can be used to efficiently handle the list merging operations, freeing the conventional processor for other uses.