Or even older - an external merge sort (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_sort#Use_with_tape_drives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_sort#Use_with_tape_dri

Or even older - an external merge sort (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_sort#Use_with_tape_drives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merge_sort#Use_with_tape_drive...). It was designed for doing out of memory sorts backed by a much slower medium (like disk).