  Memristive in-memory sorting has been proposed recently to improve hardware
sorting efficiency. Using iterative in-memory min computations, data movements
between memory and external processing units can be eliminated for improved
latency and energy efficiency. However, the bit-traversal algorithm to search
the min requires a large number of column reads on memristive memory. In this
work, we propose a column-skipping algorithm with help of a near-memory
circuit. Redundant column reads can be skipped based on recorded states for
improved latency and hardware efficiency. To enhance the scalability, we
develop a multi-bank management that enables column-skipping for dataset stored
in different memristive memory banks. Prototype column-skipping sorters are
implemented with a 1T1R memristive memory in 40nm CMOS technology. Experimented
on a variety of sorting datasets, the length-1024 32-bit column-skipping sorter
with state recording of 2 demonstrates up to 4.08x speedup, 3.14x area
efficiency and 3.39x energy efficiency, respectively, over the latest
memristive in-memory sorting.
