I will quote from the linked article:<p>Other sorting techniques may be faster. For example, using radix sorting, you can sort n word-sized integers by scanning the data a few bits at a time. Each scan can be done in linear time, and the number of scans depends on the word length w. Hence, the time for radix sorting is proportional to nw. Here, it’s easy to make a mistake. On most computers, w is a small number (typically 32 or 64), and you might be tempted to state that radix sorting is a linear time sorting algorithm. Not so. The algorithm will only work if w ≥ log n. If not, you wouldn’t even be able to store the numbers. Since each memory address is a word consisting of w bits, the address space won’t accommodate n numbers if w &lt; log n. Hence, in the unit-cost RAM model, radix sort also runs in time proportional to n log n.