Patent US 5,386,583

A database accelerator that uses the Van Voorhis sort network is implemented as a state machine using the same hardware in succeeding cycles. The database accelerator comprises high performance sort (HPS) hardware that includes working store elements for storing data records to be sorted, a plurality of comparator modules, control read only memories (ROMs), and storage control elements (SCEs). The SCEs direct respective pointer arrays and storage elements, and the storage elements provide addresses to the working store elements, which in turn feed data to the comparator modules. The control ROMs provide control signals to each comparator module as well as global control for the HPS hardware.