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From: dsouza@waltz
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: 30th Mersenne prime
Message-ID: <30300001@waltz>
Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 16:10:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: waltz.30300001
Posted: Wed Sep 18 16:10:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 04:49:32 EDT
Lines: 16
Nf-ID: #N:waltz:30300001:000:640
Nf-From: waltz!dsouza    Sep 18 15:10:00 1985


Today's Austin American Statesman reports that computer scientists have
"stumbled on" the largest prime number ever discovered, which is
2**216091 - 1. Which consists of 65050 digits and is the 30th Mersenne
prime.

Quote from the article:
"While there is no known practical use for 65000-digit prime numbers,
the method that finds them requires trillions of calculations, and is
therefore a useful test of the reliability of large supercomputers...
It took more than three hours to test the number on a machine that does
400 million calculations a second [a Cray X-MP supercomputer at Chevron 
Geosciences Co in Houston]/"

cheers,
dilip.


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