>From: ENIO SCHUTT JUNIOR <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: Mersenne Primes List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Mersenne: Eff.org prizes
>Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 20:16:11 -0300 (EST)
>
>Hi,
>
>Is the Eff.org awards (prizes for huge primes) open to anyone in
>the world or is it restricted to only some countries, like that
>$1,000,000 prize for proving goldbach's conjecture?
AFAIK it's open to anyone whose proof meets certain academic standards. In
any event, the EFF's rules are linked from the www.mersenne.org/prize.htm
page.
>
>Will gimps support the search for the 1,000,000,000 digit prime?
That's up to George and the other developers. So far, George has been good
about supporting the successive prizes, and in the last year or two has
often upgraded the program well in advance of a real need to do so.
>How many years would it take for a PC to factor such a prime?
You show me a gigaprime, and I'll show you every factor of it in about
fifteen seconds, with a properly optimized program.
>Will we be alive to see it? Just kidding... :-)
IIRC, they're expecting to find a gigaprime in about eight years.
Check The Prime Pages for more details. The URL escapes me offhand, but
it's linked from nearly every web page dealing with primes, Mersenne or
otherwise.
Regards,
Nathan Russell
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
_________________________________________________________________
Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm
Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
