> >Testing this number would take at least 2^(2^13466917 - 1) - 1 bits of storage. The supercomputer described above would not even come close to having enough RAM to store that. If it did, the LL test would then require approximately 2^13466917 - 1 massive iterations. If the computer above could do each iteration in 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds, the amount of seconds required to complete the task would still be significantly more than 4,000,000 digits. Thats incomprehensible.
That is in base 2. If we convert the number into base infinity, we can simplify the whole matter down into 1 digit arithmetic. Just doing some back of the envelope calculations here, one can see this is easily divisible by 4. On the more serious side, couldn't a seriously big number be split into a mulitple radix format and then factored from there? -Brian _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx _________________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.ndatech.com/mersenne/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers
