sorting networks

A sorting network is a fixed sequence of comparison and swapping steps designed to organize a list of items into order. Imagine a series of stages where pairs of items are compared; if they are out of order, they are swapped. These steps are arranged so that, regardless of the initial order, the entire list ends up sorted. Sorting networks are especially useful in parallel processing, as many comparisons can happen simultaneously, making them efficient for hardware implementations like processors and GPUs. They are deterministic, predictable, and optimized for speed in specialized sorting tasks.