Sorting on a parallel pointer machine with applications to set expression evaluation

We present optimal algorithms for sorting on parallel CREW and EREW versions of the pointer machine model. Intuitively, one can view our methods as being based on a parallel mergesort using linked lists rather than arrays (the usual parallel data structure). We also show how to exploit the “locality” of our approach to solve the set expression evaluation problem, a problem with applications to database querying and logic-programming in <italic>O</italic>(log <italic>n</italic>) time using <italic>O</italic>(<italic>n</italic>) processors. Interestingly, this is an asymptotic improvement over what seems possible using previous techniques.

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