Hardware support to operations of relational algebra

A novel approach is presented to the hardware implementation of the operations of relational algebra. A sorting algorithm that is suitable for hardware implementation is proposed. It can be applied to conventional computer systems without changing their architecture. For its implementation a sorting circuit is proposed whose processing time is linearly proportional to the number of data sorted. The use of the sorting scheme as a basis for exceptionally efficient hardware support to the operations of relational algebra, such as intersection, difference, join, and natural join, is discussed.