PrimeGrid Challenges 2020

[Markfw]

I have a question. What do large prime numbers do for mankind ? I really want to understand this obsession with large prime numbers, aside from a mathematical curiosity.

 

[lane42]

12189878^262144+1

1,857,553 (decimal)

Penguin (primes) DC: Lane42 (primes)

Antarctic Crunchers DC: TeAm AnandTech

2020-12-29 22:50:11 UTC

T5K, task

Generalized Fermat Prime Search

7,926.256 DC: 3,963.128

Thanks Stefan

 

[Icecold]

I have a question. What do large prime numbers do for mankind ? I really want to understand this obsession with large prime numbers, aside from a mathematical curiosity.

My understanding is that they are used in the development of cryptography and are important for Information Security, encryption, etc. I only skimmed this, but it seems like a solid read - https://math.berkeley.edu/~kpmann/encryption.pdf

Congrats @lane42 !

 

[emoga]

@lane42 Looking at your workunit info, it seems you downloaded more tasks than your GPU's could process at the time, which caused the prime to be reported late :-(
You actually had the other person beat and would have been the owner of that prime if some settings were different on the websites preferences webpage.

You could try setting your Resource share to 0 the next time you crunch GFN workunits, or you could set the "Max # of simultaneous PrimeGrid tasks" to 2 in the preferences.
(since you had 2 GPU's in that system)
That was a nice sized prime too. Congrats!..but also my condolences.

 

[TennesseeTony]

I hear you, @Markfw , and understand the question quite well. I say this reluctantly, but also, what advances do we see from other projects? How can Milkyway NOT have mapped the galaxy by now? They haven't updated results for years. How can the many medical projects have not directly created some sort of a cure for SOMETHING?

I guess stepping stones is the answer, one step into the unknown at a time. It can be frustrating though. We (BOINC) have 10 to 20 x the power of most any corporation, and yet they come up with the vaccine. Not F@H, not Rosetta, not QuChemPedia, not SiDock, not any BOINC project. I will say I am speaking out of my hind side right now, no research done to support my spouting off. Perhaps some open-source info (developed by BOINC'ers), was used in some treatment/cure somewhere? I sure hope so.

 

[Markfw]

I hear you, @Markfw , and understand the question quite well. I say this reluctantly, but also, what advances do we see from other projects? How can Milkyway NOT have mapped the galaxy by now? They haven't updated results for years. How can the many medical projects have not directly created some sort of a cure for SOMETHING?

I guess stepping stones is the answer, one step into the unknown at a time. It can be frustrating though. We (BOINC) have 10 to 20 x the power of most any corporation, and yet they come up with the vaccine. Not F@H, not Rosetta, not QuChemPedia, not SiDock, not any BOINC project. I will say I am speaking out of my hind side right now, no research done to support my spouting off. Perhaps some open-source info (developed by BOINC'ers), was used in some treatment/cure somewhere? I sure hope so.

Rosetta@home has produced a CURE for covid, but only in the lab. Its only a matter of time before it becomes real to people, but it is a real result. Folding@home did something similar with cancer, but the results were not as usable.