1. A database system comprising: a processor; a co-processor coupled to the processor, the co-processor having a hardware configuration to perform sorting operations faster than said processor, the co-processor being configured to: commence a sort operation of a data set in response to instructions from the processor by: initially sorting the data set into a current set of locally sorted subsets, and performing a first scraper sort iteration that generates a first globally-sorted partial result set and a set of remaining locally-sorted subsets based on a single pass over the current set of locally sorted subsets; return the first globally-sorted partial result set; until an instruction is received to discontinue the sort operation, continue the sort operation by performing one or more additional scraper sort iterations comprising: performing a merge iteration comprising pairwise merging one or more pairs of a most recent set of remaining locally-sorted subsets to generate a set of merged subsets in a single pass, before any next merge iteration, performing an additional scraper iteration based on the set of merged subsets to generate an additional globally-sorted partial result set and a new set of remaining locally-sorted subsets, and returning the additional globally-sorted partial result set.