A Design for a List Merging Network

Author

Hollaar, Lee A.

Author_Institution

Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois

Issue

6

fYear

1979

fDate

6/1/1979 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

406

Lastpage

413

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Backend processors; binary tree networks; computer system architecture; inverted file databases; nonnumeric processing; pipelined networks; sorted list merging; special-purpose LSI processors; system design; Computer architecture; Computer languages; Computer science; Database systems; Information retrieval; Merging; Notice of Violation; Operating systems; Query processing; Relational databases; Backend processors; binary tree networks; computer system architecture; inverted file databases; nonnumeric processing; pipelined networks; sorted list merging; special-purpose LSI processors; system design;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computers, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9340

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TC.1979.1675380

Filename

1675380