Sorting scheme without compare and branch instructions

摘要

A sorting scheme which does not require any compare or branch instructions is particularly useful for computers with multiple parallel functional units. Sorting two numbers or binary strings is performed using arithmetic instructions instead of conventional compare and branch instructions, thereby improving the performance of superscalar and very large instruction word (VLIW) computers. When applied to reduced instruction set computers (RISC), the sorting scheme provides better utilization of floating-point units. The sorting scheme allows floating point representation of data and floating-point instructions to sort binary strings.