From: "Shot" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date sent: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 02:01:50 +0200
Subject: Mersenne: Some basic questions
Hello
> status windows shows that my work should be
completed around
> September 26th. Am I right in assuming that
then it will be known
> whether M8180017 is a prime or not? And, if it
isn't a prime, it
> won't be know until then, right?
Yes to both. Prime95 writes results to
screen and to file RESULTS.TXT, wich is located
in the same directory.
> 2. As I understand the status page, there are
smaller untested would-
> be primes (about 20.000 below M7820000). Is
there any way that I can
> test some of them (they would be tested a lot
faster than M8180017,
> right?), or are they reserved for people with
slower computers?
This exponents are being tested by other
members, but not necessarily with slower
machines. Simply they got them first.
> 3. My single iteration's time is 0.430 s. Is
this about right for my
> machine and M8180xxx number?
It seems to be a right number. If you
like, see
http://www2.tripnet.se/~nlg/mersenne/benchmk.htm
Don't worry if you encounter a few % difference
with similar machines.
> 4. As I understand (from reading list's
archives, around summer '96),
> earlier people were assigned ranges of numbers
to check, and it took
> about 6 months to check primes inside a range
(range == a thousand of
> numbers, containing some primes?). Now, as the
project reached such
> big numbers as M8180xxx, the assigment is
rather one number per
> connection, right? Does the "Test=8180017,63"
in my worktodo.ini file
> mean that I got M8180017 and nothing more (if
projected end date is
> accurate, it's enough ;)? What does the number
63 mean?
In the not so early days of GIMPS, George
Woltman assigned work by e-mail. For commodity,
this assignments consisted of ranges, like you
deduced. Now, with the automation, is possible
to assign one exponent per machine. Anyway, in
Prime95 menu's Test -> Primenet it is a
parameter called 'Days of work to get'. Prime95
will reserve work for at less this number of
days, so when you end with the current exponent,
Prime95 begins with other whitout wait for a
connection with Primenet. By default, this
parameter is set to 30 days. You should not
change this, unless you connect with the
internet with less frecuency.
A Mersenne candidate it is trial factored
prior to a LLTest. Obviously, if a factor is
found the number is not prime and you save
the LLTest. The number 63 means that this
mersenne number has been trial factored up to
2^63. When Prime95 gets an assignment,
calculates if is worthwhile to factorise even
further prior to do a LLTest.
I encourage you to read the GIMPS and mail
list faq's to learn more.
Saludos
Oscar Fuentes
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