%0 Journal Article %J IEEE Transactions on Computers %D 1986 %T A Special-Function Unit for Sorting and Sort-Based Database Operations %A Raschid, Louiqa %A Fei,T. %A Lam,H. %A Su,S. Y.W %K Application software %K Computer applications %K Database machines %K Hardware %K hardware sorter %K Microelectronics %K Software algorithms %K Software design %K Software systems %K sort-based algorithms for database operations %K sorting %K special-function processor %K Technology management %X Achieving efficiency in database management functions is a fundamental problem underlying many computer applications. Efficiency is difficult to achieve using the traditional general-purpose von Neumann processors. Recent advances in microelectronic technologies have prompted many new research activities in the design, implementation, and application of database machines which are tailored for processing database management functions. To build an efficient system, the software algorithms designed for this type of system need to be tailored to take advantage of the hardware characteristics of these machines. Furthermore, special hardware units should be used, if they are cost- effective, to execute or to assist the execution of these software algorithms. %B IEEE Transactions on Computers %V C-35 %P 1071 - 1077 %8 1986/12// %@ 0018-9340 %G eng %N 12 %R 10.1109/TC.1986.1676715