[UNOFFICIAL] LTT Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search Team Info

[adams]

Hi, I am the current leader of the unofficial LTT Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search Team

Here is all the info you need about Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.

 

How to Join

 

All you have to do is create an account at

http://www.mersenne.org/ and go to http://www.mersenne.org/jteam/ and look for LinusTechTips GIMPS 

 

What are the uses for primes?

 

For a long time, number theory in general, and the study of prime numbers in particular, was seen as the canonical example of pure mathematics, with no applications outside of the self-interest of studying the topic with the exception of use of prime numbered gear teeth to distribute wear evenly. In particular, number theorists such as British mathematician G. H. Hardy prided themselves on doing work that had absolutely no military significance. However, this vision was shattered in the 1970s, when it was publicly announced that prime numbers could be used as the basis for the creation of public key cryptography algorithms. Prime numbers are also used for hash tables and pseudorandom number generators.

 

History

 

GIMPS was founded in 1996 by George Woltman. The software ran on Intel i386 systems using hand-tuned assembly code for the critical calculations, resulting in highly optimized Lucas-Lehmer code.

It wasn't long before GIMPS had it's first discovery in November of that same year, showing the effectiveness of distributed computing in harnessing spare computer cycles in a coordinated effort.

As efficient as the software itself was, the early years of GIMPS involved a manual process using emails to request work assignments and then send the results back. As the project grew, a more efficient system was needed and Scott Kurowski responded to that need with the introduction of PrimeNet through his company Entropia, a pioneer in the early days of distributed computing projects. Without Scott's invaluable contribution, the ability to manage thousands of volunteers and millions of work assignments would not have been possible. PrimeNet paved the way for the future growth of the project as a whole.

With the solid foundation of PrimeNet in place, George continued his focus on improving the core calculations of Prime95. As new Intel and AMD processors were introduced, George worked with the new instruction sets and timings to increase the performance. The core of the program is now able to optimize itself to work at peak efficiency on all modern CPU's, but also still finds a home on many older generation systems.

 

How GIMPS Works

 

GIMPS requires a modern PC that is on most of the time. The program runs at the lowest possible priority. You should not see any impact on your system's performance. The program will use about 60MB of memory and 30MB of disk space for each number currently being tested (multi-core systems may be testing more than one at a time).

Most importantly, you will need a lot of patience. Roughly speaking it will take about a month to run a single primality test – visit the benchmark page for a more accurate estimate on your computer.

If you've decided you have a powerful enough computer and enough patience to stick with the project, then visit the download page for instructions on downloading, installing, and starting the program.

The program talks to PrimeNet, a central server on the Internet, to get work to do and report results. The program communicates using the HTTP protocol and can be configured with proxy information to pass through common firewalls. The program only sends a few hundred bytes every week so there is no impact on your network performance. The program does not require a continuous Internet connection (if properly configured will not automatically dial out to establish an Internet connection for users still on dial-up connections).

There are several types of work assigned by the server. 1.4GHz and faster computers get first-time primality tests. These tests require the most work and have the best chance of finding a new Mersenne prime. Computers between 1GHz and 1.4 GHz usually get double-check assignments. These assignments do not take as long and can find a Mersenne prime only if the original test had a problem. The slowest computers are usually assigned factoring work. This helps by eliminating some exponents for the faster computers though it will not find new primes. For more details about this systematic research methodology used by GIMPS, see the Math page.

Every half hour the program saves its state so that if there is a computer crash you will lose at most a half-hour of work. All temporary files and program settings are conveniently stored in the same folder as the program.

Before you complete your assignment, the program will get more work to do from PrimeNet. This will assure that your computer has a continuous supply of work. When the work assignment is completed the program returns one of several possible types of results to PrimeNet, then proceeds with the next work assignment task.

If you are lucky enough to find a new Mersenne prime, the program notifies the server and optionally emits a continuous sound to notify you of the happy news! There may be a cash research discovery award for your new prime!

 

What has GIMPS done do far?

 

The project has found a total of fifteen Mersenne primes as of January 2016, thirteen of which were the largest known prime number at their respective times of discovery. The largest known prime as of January 2016 is 274,207,281 − 1 (or M74,207,281 in short). This prime was discovered on September 17, 2015 by Curtis Cooper at the University of Central Missouri.

More info will be added soon!

[Energycore]

I used to do GIMPS in the past, but it took 20 days to double check a prime and the results aren't as useful as boinc / F@H.

 

But I haven't cared to setup F@H ^^U

[adams]

Added  "What are the uses for primes?"

[adams]

Added " What has GIMPS done do far? "

[adams]

we need people!

[xentropa]

Its probably infinite.

[adams]

 

14 hours ago, xentropa said:

Its probably infinite.

there is a need for new primes

[xentropa]

49 minutes ago, adams said:

 

there is a need for new primes

True, but for RSA encryption, it doesn't have to be a Mersenne Prime (It can use any prime number).  As you approach infinity, one in every 60,000,000 numbers is prime Mersenne or not.