Data structure and method for pipeline heap-sorting
US7657525B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 18, 2005 |
| Grant date | Feb 2, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 21, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S707/99952
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An improved data structure is provided by modifying a public-domain data structure known as a “heap”. When these improvements are applied, the resultant data structure is known as a “pile.” This invention further describes a pipelined hardware implementation of a pile. Piles offer many advantages over heaps: they allow for fast, pipelined hardware implementations with increased throughput, making piles practical for a wide variety of new applications; they remove the requirement to track and update the last position in the heap; they reduce the number of memory reads accesses required during a delete operation; they require only ordinary, inexpensive RAM for storage in a fast, pipelined implementation; and they allow a random mixture of back-to-back insert, remove, and swap operations to be performed without stalling the pipeline.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.