44th Mersenne Prime discovered (GIMPS)

[eppur_se_muova]

Mersenne.org Project Discovers Largest Known Prime Number, 2^32,582,657-1

ORLANDO, Florida - September 11, 2006 -- Less than a year after their last discovery, the Central Missouri State University (CMSU) team, led by professors Curtis Cooper and Steven Boone, has broken their own record for the largest known prime number. The CMSU team is part of the volunteer Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project which has found the last 10 record primes. At 9,808,358 digits, it is tantalizingly close to claiming the $100,000 award offered by an anonymous donor for finding a 10 million digit prime number.

The CMSU faculty used idle time on 700 campus lab PCs and free software from www.mersenne.org as part of a world-wide collaboration of tens of thousands of computers working together to make this discovery. The software was developed by GIMPS founder, George Woltman, in Orlando, Florida, and grid computing pioneer Scott Kurowski, in San Diego, California.

The new prime number, known as M32582657 or (2^32,582,657)-1, was revealed on September 4th in the CMSU Department of Communication lab. The previous record prime was found in the same lab just a few computers away.

Dr. Cooper and Dr. Boone have joined together among tens of thousands of researchers participating in GIMPS. In addition to pursuing prime number discoveries, these individuals also have a chance to win part of the 10 million digit prime number award. If GIMPS claims the $100,000 award administered by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, $25,000 will go to charity and a large portion will be given to the GIMPS participant that discovers the prime number.
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more: http://mersenne.org/32582657.htm

[rock]

1. Gadzooks!

That's mighty impressive computation.