Original author(s) | Rytis Slatkevičius |
---|---|
Initial release | June 12, 2005 [1] |
Development status | Active |
Project goal(s) | Finding prime numbers of various types |
Software used | PRPNet, Genefer, LLR, PFGW |
Funding | Corporate sponsorship, crowdfunding [2] [3] |
Platform | BOINC |
Average performance | 3,398.914 TFLOPS [4] |
Active users | 2,330 (August 2022) [4] |
Total users | 353,245 [4] |
Active hosts | 11,504 (August 2022) [4] |
Total hosts | 21,985 [4] |
Website | www |
PrimeGrid is a volunteer computing project that searches for very large (up to world-record size) prime numbers whilst also aiming to solve long-standing mathematical conjectures. It uses the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) platform. PrimeGrid offers a number of subprojects for prime-number sieving and discovery. Some of these are available through the BOINC client, others through the PRPNet client. Some of the work is manual, i.e. it requires manually starting work units and uploading results. Different subprojects may run on different operating systems, and may have executables for CPUs, GPUs, or both; while running the Lucas–Lehmer–Riesel test, CPUs with Advanced Vector Extensions and Fused Multiply-Add instruction sets will yield the fastest results for non-GPU accelerated workloads.
PrimeGrid awards badges to users in recognition of achieving certain defined levels of credit for work done. The badges have no intrinsic value but are valued by many as a sign of achievement. The issuing of badges should also benefit PrimeGrid by evening out the participation in the less popular sub projects. The easiest of the badges can often be obtained in less than a day by a single computer, whereas the most challenging badges will require far more time and computing power.
This section needs to be updated.(March 2023) |
PrimeGrid started in June 2005 [1] under the name Message@home and tried to decipher text fragments hashed with MD5. Message@home was a test to port the BOINC scheduler to Perl to obtain greater portability. After a while the project attempted the RSA factoring challenge trying to factor RSA-640. After RSA-640 was factored by an outside team in November 2005, the project moved on to RSA-768. With the chance to succeed too small, it discarded the RSA challenges, was renamed to PrimeGrid, and started generating a list of the first prime numbers. At 210,000,000,000 [5] the primegen subproject was stopped.
In June 2006, dialog started with Riesel Sieve to bring their project to the BOINC community. PrimeGrid provided PerlBOINC support and Riesel Sieve was successful in implementing their sieve as well as a prime finding (LLR) application. With collaboration from Riesel Sieve, PrimeGrid was able to implement the LLR application in partnership with another prime finding project, Twin Prime Search (TPS). In November 2006, the TPS LLR application was officially released at PrimeGrid. Less than two months later, January 2007, the record twin was found by the original manual project. TPS has since been completed, and the search for Sophie Germain primes was suspended in 2024.
In the summer of 2007, the Cullen and Woodall prime searches were launched. In the Fall, more prime searches were added through partnerships with the Prime Sierpinski Problem and 3*2^n-1 Search projects. Additionally, two sieves were added: the Prime Sierpinski Problem combined sieve which includes supporting the Seventeen or Bust sieve and the combined Cullen/Woodall sieve. In the fall of the same year, PrimeGrid migrated its systems from PerlBOINC to standard BOINC software.
Since September 2008, PrimeGrid is also running a Proth prime sieving subproject. [6]
In January 2010 the subproject Seventeen or Bust (for solving the Sierpinski problem) was added. [7] The calculations for the Riesel problem followed in March 2010.
As of January 2023 [update] , PrimeGrid is working on or has worked on the following projects:
Project | Active sieve project? | Active LLR project? | Start | End | Best result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
321 Prime Search (primes of the form 3 × 2n ± 1) | No | Yes | 30 June 2008 | Ongoing | 3 × 218196595 − 1, largest prime found in the 321 Prime Search project [8] |
AP26 Search (Arithmetic progression of 26 primes) | — | — | 27 December 2008 | 12 April 2010 | 43142746595714191 + 23681770 × 23# × n, n = 0, ..., 25 (AP26) [9] |
AP27 Search (Arithmetic progression of 27 primes) | — | — | 20 September 2016 | Ongoing | 224584605939537911 + 81292139 × 23# × n, n = 0, ..., 26 (AP27) [10] |
Generalized Fermat Prime Search [11] [12] (active: n = 32768, 65536, 131072, 262144, 524288, 1048576, 2097152, 4194304 inactive: n = 8192, 16384) | Yes (manual sieving) | — | January 2012 | Ongoing | 19637361048576 + 1, largest known Generalized Fermat prime [13] |
Cullen Prime Search | No | Yes | August 2007 | Ongoing | 6679881 × 26679881 + 1, largest known Cullen prime [14] |
Message7 | No | — | 12 June 2005 | August 2005 | PerlBOINC testing successful |
Prime Sierpinski Problem | No | Yes | 10 July 2008 | Ongoing | 168451 × 219375200 + 1 [15] |
Extended Sierpinski Problem | No | Yes | 7 June 2014 | Ongoing | 202705 × 221320516 + 1, largest prime found in the Extended Sierpinski Problem [16] |
PrimeGen | No | — | March 2006 | February 2008 | — |
Proth Prime Search | Yes | Yes | 29 February 2008 | Ongoing | 7 × 25775996 + 1 [17] |
Riesel Problem | No | Yes | March 2010 | Ongoing | 9221 × 211392194 − 1, [18] |
RSA-640 | No | — | August 2005 | November 2005 | — |
RSA-768 | No | — | November 2005 | March 2006 | — |
Seventeen or Bust | No | Yes | 31 January 2010 | Ongoing | 10223 × 231172165 + 1 |
Sierpinski/Riesel Base 5 Problem | No | Yes | 14 June 2013 | Ongoing | 213988×54138363 − 1, largest prime found in the Sierpinski/Riesel Base 5 Problem |
Sophie Germain Prime Search | No | No | 16 August 2009 | February 2024 | 2618163402417 × 21290000 − 1 (2p − 1 = 2618163402417 × 21290001 − 1), the world record Sophie Germain prime; [19] and 2996863034895 × 21290000 ± 1, the world record twin primes [20] |
Twin prime Search | No | — | 26 November 2006 | 25 July 2009 | 65516468355 × 2333333 ± 1 [21] |
Woodall Prime Search | No | Yes | July 2007 | Ongoing | 17016602 × 217016602 − 1, largest known Woodall prime [22] |
Generalized Cullen/Woodall Prime Search | Yes | Yes | 22 October 2016 | Ongoing | 2525532 × 732525532 + 1, largest known generalized Cullen prime [23] |
Wieferich Prime Search | — | — | 2020 [24] | 2022 | — |
Wall-Sun-Sun Prime Search | — | — | 2020 | 2022 | — |
321 Prime Search is a continuation of Paul Underwood's 321 Search which looked for primes of the form 3 · 2n − 1. PrimeGrid added the +1 form and continues the search up to n = 25M.
Primes known for 3 · 2n + 1 occur at the following n:
Primes known for 3 · 2n − 1 occur at the following n:
Project | Active? | Start | End | Best result |
---|---|---|---|---|
27 Prime Search | No | — | March 2022 [25] | 27 × 27046834 + 1, largest known Sierpinski prime for b = 2 and k = 27 27×28342438 − 1, largest known Riesel prime for b = 2 and k = 27 [26] |
121 Prime Search | No | — | April 2021 [27] | 121 × 29584444 − 1, largest known Sierpinski prime for b = 2 and k = 121 121 × 24553899 − 1, largest known Riesel prime for b = 2 and k = 121 [28] |
Extended Sierpinski problem | No | — | 2014 | 90527 × 29162167 + 1 [29] |
Factorial Prime Search | Yes | — | Ongoing | 147855! − 1, 5th largest known factorial prime |
Dual Sierpinski problem (Five or Bust) | No | — | All were done (all PRPs were found) | 29092392 + 40291 |
Generalized Cullen/Woodall Prime Search | No | — | 2017 [30] | 427194 × 113427194 + 1, then largest known GCW prime [31] |
Mega Prime Search | No | — | 2014 | 87 × 23496188 + 1, largest known prime for k = 87 |
Primorial Prime Search | Yes | 2008 [32] | Ongoing | 3267113# − 1, largest known primorial prime [33] |
Proth Prime Search | No | 2008 | 2012 [34] | 10223 × 231172165 + 1, largest known Proth prime |
Sierpinski Riesel Base 5 | No | 2009 [35] | 2013 [36] | 180062 × 52249192 − 1 |
Wieferich Prime Search | No | 2012 [37] | 2017 [38] | 82687771042557349, closest near-miss above 3 × 1015 |
Wall-Sun-Sun Prime Search | No | 2012 [37] | 2017 [38] | 6336823451747417, closest near-miss above 9.7 × 1014 |
One of PrimeGrid projects was AP26 Search which searched for a record 26 primes in arithmetic progression. The search was successful in April 2010 with the finding of the first known AP26:
Next target of the project was AP27 Search which searched for a record 27 primes in arithmetic progression. The search was successful in September 2019 with the finding of the first known AP27:
PrimeGrid is also running a search for Cullen prime numbers, yielding the two largest known Cullen primes. The first one being the 14th largest known prime at the time of discovery, and the second one was PrimeGrid's largest prime found 6679881 · 26679881 + 1 at over 2 million digits. [41]
On 24 September 2022, PrimeGrid discovered the largest known Generalized Fermat prime to date, 19637361048576 + 1. This prime is 6,598,776 digits long and is only the second Generalized Fermat prime found for n = 20. It ranks as the 13th largest known prime overall. [42]
As of 13 December 2022 [update] , PrimeGrid has eliminated 18 values of k from the Riesel problem [43] and is continuing the search to eliminate the 43 remaining numbers. 3 values of k are found by independent searchers.
Primegrid worked with the Twin Prime Search to search for a record-sized twin prime at approximately 58,700 digits. The new world's largest known twin prime 2003663613 × 2195000 ± 1 was eventually discovered on January 15, 2007 (sieved by Twin Prime Search and tested by PrimeGrid). The search continued for another record twin prime at just above 100,000 digits. It was completed in August 2009 when Primegrid found 65516468355 × 2333333 ± 1. Continued testing for twin primes in conjunction with the search for a Sophie Germain prime yielded a new record twin prime in September 2016 upon finding the number 2996863034895 × 21290000 ± 1 composed of 388,342 digits.
As of 22 April 2018 [update] , the project has discovered the four largest Woodall primes known to date. [44] The largest of these is 17016602 × 217016602 − 1 and was found in 21 March 2018.[ citation needed ] The search continues for an even bigger Woodall prime. PrimeGrid also found the largest known generalized Woodall prime, [45] 563528 × 13563528 − 1.
PrimeGrid's author Rytis Slatkevičius has been featured as a young entrepreneur in The Economist . [46]
PrimeGrid has also been featured in an article by Francois Grey in the CERN Courier and a talk about citizen cyberscience in TEDx Warwick conference. [47] [48]
In the first Citizen Cyberscience Summit, Rytis Slatkevičius gave a talk as a founder of PrimeGrid, named Finding primes: from digits to digital technology, [49] relating mathematics and volunteering and featuring the history of the project. [50]
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) is a collaborative project of volunteers who use freely available software to search for Mersenne prime numbers.
A prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, 1 × 5 or 5 × 1, involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a product (2 × 2) in which both numbers are smaller than 4. Primes are central in number theory because of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic: every natural number greater than 1 is either a prime itself or can be factorized as a product of primes that is unique up to their order.
Grid computing is the use of widely distributed computer resources to reach a common goal. A computing grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve many files. Grid computing is distinguished from conventional high-performance computing systems such as cluster computing in that grid computers have each node set to perform a different task/application. Grid computers also tend to be more heterogeneous and geographically dispersed than cluster computers. Although a single grid can be dedicated to a particular application, commonly a grid is used for a variety of purposes. Grids are often constructed with general-purpose grid middleware software libraries. Grid sizes can be quite large.
In number theory, a Sierpiński number is an odd natural number k such that is composite for all natural numbers n. In 1960, Wacław Sierpiński proved that there are infinitely many odd integers k which have this property.
In mathematics, a Cullen number is a member of the integer sequence . Cullen numbers were first studied by James Cullen in 1905. The numbers are special cases of Proth numbers.
In number theory, a Woodall number (Wn) is any natural number of the form
In mathematics, a Riesel number is an odd natural number k for which is composite for all natural numbers n. In other words, when k is a Riesel number, all members of the following set are composite:
The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing is an open-source middleware system for volunteer computing. Developed originally to support SETI@home, it became the platform for many other applications in areas as diverse as medicine, molecular biology, mathematics, linguistics, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics, among others. The purpose of BOINC is to enable researchers to utilize processing resources of personal computers and other devices around the world.
73 (seventy-three) is the natural number following 72 and preceding 74. In English, it is the smallest natural number with twelve letters in its spelled out name.
World Community Grid (WCG) is an effort to create the world's largest volunteer computing platform to tackle scientific research that benefits humanity. Launched on November 16, 2004, with proprietary Grid MP client from United Devices and adding support for Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) in 2005, World Community Grid eventually discontinued the Grid MP client and consolidated on the BOINC platform in 2008. In September 2021, it was announced that IBM transferred ownership to the Krembil Research Institute of University Health Network in Toronto, Ontario.
The largest known prime number is 2136,279,841 − 1, a number which has 41,024,320 digits when written in the decimal system. It was found on October 12, 2024, on a cloud-based virtual machine volunteered by Luke Durant to the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS).
In mathematics, a covering set for a sequence of integers refers to a set of prime numbers such that every term in the sequence is divisible by at least one member of the set. The term "covering set" is used only in conjunction with sequences possessing exponential growth.
Twin Prime Search (TPS) is a volunteer computing project that looks for large twin primes. It uses the programs LLR and NewPGen. It was founded on April 13, 2006, by Michael Kwok. In number theory, it is conjectured that there are infinitely many twin primes, and this is known as the twin prime conjecture.
In mathematics, the Lucas–Lehmer–Riesel test is a primality test for numbers of the form N = k ⋅ 2n − 1 with odd k < 2n. The test was developed by Hans Riesel and it is based on the Lucas–Lehmer primality test. It is the fastest deterministic algorithm known for numbers of that form. For numbers of the form N = k ⋅ 2n + 1, either application of Proth's theorem or one of the deterministic proofs described in Brillhart–Lehmer–Selfridge 1975 are used.
MindModeling@Home is an inactive non-profit, volunteer computing research project for the advancement of cognitive science. MindModeling@Home is hosted by Wright State University and the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.
The Texas Instruments signing key controversy resulted from Texas Instruments' (TI) response to a project to factorize the 512-bit RSA cryptographic keys needed to write custom firmware to TI devices.
OProject@Home was a volunteer computing project running on the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) and was based on a dedicated library OLib. The project was directed by Lukasz Swierczewski, an IT student at the College of Computer Science and Business Administration in Łomża, Computer Science and Automation Institute. As of 2016 it seems to have been abandoned.
A Proth number is a natural number N of the form where k and n are positive integers, k is odd and . A Proth prime is a Proth number that is prime. They are named after the French mathematician François Proth. The first few Proth primes are