Re: Mersenne: Benchmarks / Reference Machine / Calculations

[Dave Zook]

Michael Vang highlights the fact that there are two different things that we can measure: 1) work accomplished, e.g. Mnumbers evaluated, iterations run, etc. 2) work effort expended, which requires evaluation of processor/system power.   The P4 versions (more efficient) accomplish more with less effort. This can make evaluation of effort expended complex, even when work accomplished is trivial to calculate.   The only thing I have concluded so far is that any re-indexing or re-calculation should be concerned strictly with LL computation. No consideration should be given to factoring or P-1 effort in determining machine efficiency. After all, any factors found are a nice side effect. The _real_ objective is to find numbers _without_ factors.   The rankings should ideally be based on work effort expended, in my opinion. I have no idea how this can be done "fairly". If accomplishments are to be the basis of rankings, the individuals who have found MPrimes should always be at the top of the list for LL testing. ------------ The Internet is a library the size of the world.