>From: Spike Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 21:57:59 -0800
>Subject: Mersenne: who has the most wicked-fast home setup?
>
>Let category 1 GIMPSers be set that contains those GIMPSers that
>use a number of commercially owned or institutional computers, such
>as the champion TempleU.
>
>Let category 2 GIMPSers be set that contains those GIMPSers that
>use a combination of commercial and home computers.
>
>Let category 3 GIMPSers be set that contains those GIMPSers that
>use only computers located in the home of that GIMPSer and owned
>by that GIMPSer.
>
>Are there any cat 3 GIMPSers in the top 100 producers? Top 200?
>Who is the highest ranking cat 3 GIMPSer?
I have been thinking about this for quite a while now. When I joined GIMPS
back in thee mosts of pre-history (well, Fall 96 actually) there were only
about 800 or so volunteers in the project.
In thos days it was quite easy to actually make a mark in the rankings
table, I seem to recall at one point just after finding M2976221 that I
moved up to about number 78 in the rankings.
The only machines I had were a P100 (home, 24 hours), PPRO200 (work, 24
hours) and about 6 hours a day on 3 or 4 P166's.
Nowadays I still have the trusty P100 that found the prime, but I also have
8 other machines that I can get some access time on, my ranking has now
disappeared into the depths.
What bothers me most I guess is that the ordinary humble joe in the street
being realistic has no chance whatever of finding the next mersenne prime.
Over-reacting? maybe, but when people like templeu have over 300 machines
of PPRO200/PII300+ running think about it. They are generating about 14
months of cpu per day.
If we are going to continue to recruit new *individual* members or thos
like me who can get time on a few computers as opposed to hundreds then
shouldn't we be thinking about splitting the rankings based on the numbers
of machines being used.
Of course, if I could get my employer signed up and use all the 25,000+
pc's then I may well change my mind ;-))
regards
G
Gordon Spence, Nokia IP Telephony
Applications Engineer Grove House, Waltham Way,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] White Waltham, Maidenhead,
http://www.nokiaiptel.com/ Berkshire, SL6 3TN, UK.
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