Hi,
I should have clarified a touch ...
On Sun, 28 Nov 1999, Geoff Thorpe wrote:
> to begin right on top of it. An arithmetic search increases the "fair
> play" by skipping across intervals plucking candidates out every 'k' odd
> numbers. Provided no ground-breaking maths crops up and you choose good
> 'k's, I think it pretty much evens the playing field.
In the sense that it gives bias to primes that lie at the end of a long
gap in their congruence class "mod k". Sequential searches are just
arithmetic sequences with k=2. Being at the end of a long gap of odd
numbers "mod k" is a little more obscure than being at the end of a long
gap of odd numbers. Also, the k can be chosen with the starting point, and
can be changed if a block has been exhausted without finding a prime. So
given that "k" is arbitrary, the bias shifts to primes that are at the end
of a long gap of integers "mod k" for all k in whatever region k is
selected from. If k is big enough, then it'd be some pretty radically long
gap required to give a prime an unfair chance "no matter what the 'k'".
hmm ... that should have made it as clear as mud ...
(sorry)
Cheers,
Geoff
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Geoff Thorpe Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cryptographic Software Engineer, C2Net Europe http://www.int.c2.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------
May I just take this opportunity to say that of all the people I have
EVER emailed, you are definitely one of them.
______________________________________________________________________
OpenSSL Project http://www.openssl.org
Development Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Automated List Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED]
