Partial averaging circuit and method

摘要

The present invention relates to a circuit (200) for sorting a set of data values (202), the circuit comprising a first set (220) of p+q registers (220a-c) for storing the p+q largest data values of the set of data values including p statistical outliers; a second set (230) of p+q registers (230a-c) for storing the p+q smallest data values of the set of data values including p statistical outliers, wherein p is a non-negative integer and q is a positive integer; a controller (210) coupled to each register in said first and second sets, said controller being arranged to: receive the set of data values and for each data value obtain a comparison result of the data value with the respective data values in each of said registers; and update said registers as a function of said comparison results; the circuit further comprising a data processing circuit (260) coupled to at least the q registers in said first and second sets, which for instance may be used to produce an average value (204) of the data values stored in said q registers in response to the controller. The present invention further relates to a sorting method using such a circuit.