Hi all,
Please forgive me. I'm terribly sorry. I've discovered a bug
in version 17 of prime95 and its variants (ntprime, mprime, OS/2 version).
All Lucas-Lehmer tests above 4,194,304 (except those that were done as
a continuation of a v16 run) are no good. I feel sick.
I've uploaded version 18 of prime95 and ntprime. I'll port it
to Linux and Windows 3.1 as soon as I can. Please download and install
this new version immediately from http:\\www.mersenne.org\freesoft.htm
Version 16 and earlier users were not affected by this bug. Neither
were those users that are double-checking.
I've asked Scott to change Primenet to assign double-checking
work to version 17 clients in the future. I don't know if he can do this
or not, let's hope so.
After upgrading, you will get error messages that look like this:
Error reading intermediate file: p6180331
Renaming intermediate file q6180331 to p6180331.
Error reading intermediate file: p6180331
This is normal. Prime95 must discard the incorrect version 17
save files.
My records indicate that 10,794 of the 59,169 Lucas-Lehmer tests
above 4,194,304 will have to be discarded. This will set GIMPS back
roughly 3 to 4 months. This will not affect your standings on the PrimeNet
server's Top Producer's page.
For those that like to look at the bright side of things, I can find
only one bit of good news. This will give you a better chance to win the
$50,000 EFF prize once I sort out the mess and have the server hand out
smaller exponents to retest.
Once again, I'm sorry for the bug and the wasted CPU cycles the
last few months.
Humbled,
George
________________________________________________________________
Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm
