In this paper we demonstrate the power of reconfiguration by presenting efficient randomized algorithms for both packet routing and sorting on a reconfigurable mesh connected computer. The run times of these algorithms are better than the best achievable time bounds on a conventional mesh. Many variations of the reconfigurable mesh can be found in the literature. We define yet another variation which we call as Mr. We also make use of the standard PARBUS model. We show that permutation routing problem can be solved on a linear array Mr of size n in [Formula: see text] steps, whereas n-1 is the best possible run time without reconfiguration. A trivial lower bound for routing on Mr will be [Formula: see text]. On the PARBUS linear array, n is a lower bound and hence any standard n-step routing algorithm will be optimal. We also show that permutation routing on an n×n reconfigurable mesh Mr can be done in time n+o(n) using a randomized algorithm or in time 1.25n+o(n) deterministically. In contrast, 2n-2 is the diameter of a conventional mesh and hence routing and sorting will need at least 2n-2 steps on a conventional mesh. A lower bound of [Formula: see text] is in effect for routing on the 2D mesh Mr as well. On the other hand, n is a lower bound for routing on the PARBUS and our algorithms have the same time bounds on the PARBUS as well. Thus our randomized routing algorithm is optimal upto a lower order term. In addition we show that the problem of sorting can be solved in randomized time n+o(n) on Mr as well as on PARBUS. Clearly, this sorting algorithm will be optimal on the PARBUS model. The time bounds of our randomized algorithms hold with high probability.
Randomized algorithms for generalized Hermitian eigenvalue problems with application to computing Karhunen-Loève expansion
