Parallel Sorting Algorithms for

Insertion Shell and Heapsort on the HEP

Kelly D. Crawford and Roger L. Wainwright
The University of Tulsa

Parallel Sorting Algorithms for Insertlon, Shell

a n d H e a p s o r t on t h e HEP
Kelly V. Crawford and Roger L. Wainwright,
The University of Tulsa.
In this paper we describe three asyncrhonous
parallel sorting algorithms: (I) Insertion sort,
(2) Shellsort, and (3) Heapsort. Each algorithm
was run on the Denelcor 8EP computer. The
Heterogeneous Element Processor (HEP) is the
first commercially available MIMD multiproceseor
system. Each of the processors share a common
memory and use it for communication. Each
algorithm was Implemented using the
Self-Schedullng technique for scheduling pro-
cessors to do work on the HEP. Each algorithm
was executed using 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 pro-
cessors over dataset sizes ranging from 128 to
8192 items. The Heapsort was run over dataeets
of up to 20,000. All datasets consist of random
values. The serial and parallel CPU times are
presented. As a means of measuring the perfor-
mance of the various algorithms we also present
the speedup ratios. We discuss our results as it
compares to theoretical limits.

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