A parallel solution to the approximate string matching problem

Abstract

The approximate string matching problem (ASMP) consists of finding all the occurrences of a string of characters X of length m in another string Y of length n, m ≪ n, where some errors are allowed in these occurrences. A classical sequential algorithm based on dynamic programming solves the problem in time of O(mn). A parallelisation scheme for this algorithm is proposed, which applies to a very general set of errors, and allows to solve ASMP in time T with N processors, with NT of O(mn), thereby achieving optimal speedup. The scheme is suitable for VLSI implementation on a bounded degree network. © 1992 The British Computer Society.