Skip to content

Official Project Requirements

This page consolidates the latest course requirements for both project phases.

Phase 2 requirements were updated on February 28, 2026 based on the instructor's latest brief.

Phase I Requirements (Process-Based in Linux)

  • Execution Environment

    Ubuntu/Linux environment with reproducible setup.

  • Implementation Stack

    C program compiled with gcc using process creation and synchronization (fork() / wait()).

  • Experimentation

    Run controlled matrix multiplication experiments with varying matrix size and process count.

  • Reporting

    Document setup, commands, results tables, and performance analysis.

Phase II Requirements (Multithreaded Java Optimization)

Core Task

Modify the Java program to compute the sum of cubes of array elements and evaluate performance on a multi-core system.

Implementation Requirements

  • Use integer array values strictly less than 100.
  • Support these thread counts: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8.
  • Measure execution time for each thread count.
  • Compute speedup and percentage improvement relative to the single-thread baseline.

Required Analysis

  • Compare execution-time behavior across thread counts.
  • Explain why performance improves or degrades.
  • Discuss thread creation overhead, scheduling overhead, and CPU core utilization.
  • Identify the maximum thread count after which performance starts to decrease.

Phase II Submission Checklist

Submit one ZIP package containing:

  • Modified Java source code.
  • Results summary in tabular form (multiple tables).
  • Main results table (Threads, Execution Time, Speedup, % Improvement).
  • Short explanation (maximum 1000 words).
  • Graphs that show performance trends.
  • Maximum thread count after which performance decreases.
  • Machine specifications for reproducibility.

Mandatory Machine Specifications

  • Processor model.
  • Number of cores.
  • RAM.
  • Operating system.

Results Table Template (Phase II)

Threads Execution Time (ms) Speedup % Improvement
1
2
4
6
8

Marking Scheme (100 Marks)

Criteria Marks
Understanding and explanation of provided code 15
Successful execution and verification of original program 10
Correct implementation of required mathematical modification 15
Implementation with multiple thread counts (1,2,4,6,8) 10
Accurate runtime measurement and data collection 10
Correct speedup and percentage-improvement calculation 10
Quality of performance analysis and explanation 15
Code quality, readability, and documentation 5
Proper results table and formatting 5
Machine specifications and reproducibility details 5

Academic Integrity

All submitted work must be original and follow university policy. Proper attribution is required for external references.