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Phase 2 Experimental Plan

This plan defines a reproducible benchmark process for evaluating multithreaded performance.

Objective

Evaluate how execution time changes when the Java program computes the sum of cubes using 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 threads.

Controlled Test Conditions

  • Use the same machine for all official runs.
  • Use the same input array size for all thread counts.
  • Ensure all array values are integers less than 100.
  • Measure only computation time (exclude setup and logging).

Measurement Method

  • Use System.nanoTime() before and after computation.
  • Convert elapsed time to milliseconds.
  • Execute each thread configuration at least 5 times.
  • Compute average time for each configuration.

Metrics

  • Execution Time (ms)
  • Speedup = T(1) / T(n)
  • % Improvement = ((T(1) - T(n)) / T(1)) * 100

Analysis Questions

  • Where does performance improve the most?
  • At which thread count do gains flatten?
  • Does performance decrease at higher thread counts?
  • What overhead factors explain the trend (thread creation, scheduling, context switching, core limits)?