Patent Document ID: 6058405
Application ID: 08965686
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of fully sorting an M.times.N matrix stored in a memory using a data processing system, wherein: the M.times.N matrix has M rows and N columns, M&lt;=N, N is an odd number &gt;3, said method comprising: A) fully sorting each of the N columns; B) fully sorting each of the M rows; C) selecting a slope value (K) equal to one (1); D) selecting a set of all (K,1) diagonal lines with slope 1/K and at least two elements, and fully sorting each diagonal line of elements in the set of all (K,1) diagonal lines; and E) repeating step (D) as a diagonal loop selecting successive integers from 2 to N-1 as the slope value (K).