Abstract: The concurrent sorting apparatus and method pertains to a pipelined and concurrent sorting engine that can operate with single or double-ported host memory and, specifically, sort data with serial input and output. The apparatus is composed of stages that can vary in count to provide faster sort convergence or lower complexity. Each stage includes a first comparator and a storage. The first comparator of each stage is responsive to the value of an input element for storing that element in the storage if, for example, the input element value is equal to or greater than the value of the last stored element in that stage and for passing on to the next stage if the incoming element value is less than the value of the last stored element. The output from the storage of the adjacent stages are compared for passing down from stage to stage to the output the element having for the example the lesser value.