UCLA group discovers massive prime number with Windows XP
LOS ANGELES - Mathematicians at UCLA have discovered a 13-million-digit prime number, a long-sought milestone that makes them eligible for a $100,000 prize.
The group found the 46th known Mersenne prime last month on a network of 75 computers running Windows XP. The number was verified by a different computer system running a different algorithm.
"We're delighted," said UCLA's Edson Smith, the leader of the effort. "Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds."
See the rest of this article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26914730/.
See the gory details @ http://www.math.ucla.edu/~edson/prime/ like the following question and answer:
Q. When did the discovery occur? What kind of computer was used?
A. The UCLA Mersenne Prime was reported on August 23, 2008 on a computer named zeppelin.pic.ucla.edu, a Dell Optiplex 745 running Windows XP with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU running at 2.4 GHz. The name "zeppelin" was part of our Classic Rock Band series of computers.
Glad they weren’t using OS X or Linux. I’m a PC. I rock Zeppelin. Grin.
