Abstract
In practice, the average time of (deterministic of randomized) sorting algorithms seems to be more relevant than the worst-case time of deterministic algorithms. Still, the many known complexity bounds for parallel comparison sorting include no nontrivial lower bounds for the average time required to sort by comparison n elements with p processors (via deterministic or randomized algorithms). We show that for p≥n this time is Θ(log n/log(1+p/n)) (it is easy to show that for p≤n the time is Θ(n log n/p)=Θ(log n/(p/n)). Therefore even the average-case behavior of randomized algorithms is not more efficient than the worst-case behavior of deterministic ones.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1178-1192 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | SIAM Journal on Computing |
Volume | 17 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1988 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Computer Science
- General Mathematics