1 research outputs found
Twenty-Five Comparators is Optimal when Sorting Nine Inputs (and Twenty-Nine for Ten)
This paper describes a computer-assisted non-existence proof of nine-input
sorting networks consisting of 24 comparators, hence showing that the
25-comparator sorting network found by Floyd in 1964 is optimal. As a
corollary, we obtain that the 29-comparator network found by Waksman in 1969 is
optimal when sorting ten inputs.
This closes the two smallest open instances of the optimal size sorting
network problem, which have been open since the results of Floyd and Knuth from
1966 proving optimality for sorting networks of up to eight inputs.
The proof involves a combination of two methodologies: one based on
exploiting the abundance of symmetries in sorting networks, and the other,
based on an encoding of the problem to that of satisfiability of propositional
logic. We illustrate that, while each of these can single handed solve smaller
instances of the problem, it is their combination which leads to an efficient
solution for nine inputs.Comment: 18 page