A multiway merge sorting network
De-Lei Lee, Kenneth E. Batcher · IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems · 1995
A multiway merge sorting network is presented, which generalizes the technique used in the odd-even merge sorting network. The merging network described here is composed of m k-way mergers and a combining network. It arranges k ordered lists of length n each into one ordered lists in T(k)+[log/sub 2/k] [log/sub 2/m] [log/sub 2/m] steps, where T(k) is the number of steps needed to sort k keys in order; and k and m are any integers no longer restricted to 2.>