Mega primes: A new GIMPS record | Tangente

The first of these monsters is the Mersenne number M₃₈ = 2^6,972,593 – 1, discovered in 1999 thanks to the worldwide research platform GIMPS (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search), which makes it possible to connect more than 150,000 computers.

Searching for these numbers among the Mersenne numbers makes the task of verifying their primality easier. Today we have reached M₄₉ = 2^74,207,281 – 1, whose discovery was made public on 7 January. Its "discoverer," Curtis Cooper (University of Central Missouri, Warrenburg, USA), who worked with Steven Boon, deployed 800 computers spread across his university's two campuses. His discovery, which in fact dated back to 17 September 2015, very nearly went unnoticed because of a computer bug, fixed only on 7 January! The vital statistics of this now-famous number are quite impressive, since it boasts exactly 22,338,618 digits — around five million more digits than the previous record holder in this category, M₄₈ = 2^57,885,161 – 1… discovered by that same Curtis Cooper! When will we see the $150,000promisedbytheElectronicFrontierFoundationforahundred-million-digitprimenumberor,betterstill,150,000\; promised\; by\; the\; Electronic\; Frontier\; Foundation\; for\; a\; hundred-million-digit\; prime\; number\; or,\; better\; still,$250,000 for a billion-digit one?