Patent ID: 7126074

Claim:
A method of sorting a group of objects in accordance with an ascending sequence or a descending sequence of order numbers assigned to each of the objects, by performing a sequence of successive sorting steps, said method comprising steps of: providing a pair of first and second storage areas for each sorting step of said sequence of successive sorting steps, each pair of first and second storage areas serving as separate source storage areas for subsequent steps; for each object, determining whether a binary representation of the order number for the object has a zero or a one at a digit point in the binary representation based on a current sorting step, the digit point being a least significant digit of the binary representation for the first sorting step of said successive sorting steps, and for each next sorting step, the point being the respective next most significant digit in the binary representation; and allocating each object to the first storage area or the second storage area corresponding to the current sorting step based upon the result of the determining step; wherein, for each sorting step from the second sorting step on, the determining step and allocating step are performed for each object sequentially either beginning with objects in the first storage area corresponding to the previous step, and next performing the determining step and allocating step for all the objects in the second storage area corresponding to the previous step objects, or beginning with objects in the second storage area corresponding to the previous step, and next performing the determining step and allocating step for all the objects in the first storage area corresponding to the previous step objects.