<s>
Bitonic	B-Algorithm
mergesort	I-Algorithm
is	O
a	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
algorithm	I-Operating_System
for	O
sorting	B-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
also	O
used	O
as	O
a	O
construction	O
method	O
for	O
building	O
a	O
sorting	B-Algorithm
network	I-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
resulting	O
sorting	B-Algorithm
networks	I-Algorithm
consist	O
of	O
comparators	O
and	O
have	O
a	O
delay	O
of	O
,	O
where	O
is	O
the	O
number	O
of	O
items	O
to	O
be	O
sorted	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
following	O
is	O
a	O
bitonic	B-Algorithm
sorting	I-Algorithm
network	O
with	O
16	O
inputs	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
structure	O
is	O
known	O
as	O
a	O
butterfly	B-Architecture
network	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
green	O
and	O
blue	O
boxes	O
combine	O
to	O
form	O
the	O
entire	O
sorting	B-Algorithm
network	I-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
process	O
starts	O
with	O
each	O
input	O
considered	O
to	O
be	O
a	O
sorted	B-Algorithm
list	I-Algorithm
of	O
one	O
element	O
,	O
and	O
continues	O
through	O
all	O
the	O
columns	O
until	O
the	O
last	O
merges	O
them	O
into	O
a	O
single	O
,	O
sorted	B-Algorithm
list	I-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
following	O
is	O
a	O
recursion-free	O
implementation	O
of	O
the	O
bitonic	B-Algorithm
mergesort	I-Algorithm
when	O
the	O
array	B-Data_Structure
length	O
is	O
a	O
power	O
of	O
two	O
:	O
</s>
