The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) is a collaborative distributed computing project dedicated to finding Mersenne prime numbers. Founded in 1996, GIMPS utilizes volunteer computing power across the globe to test candidate numbers, specifically those of the form 2p-1 where p is a prime number. These numbers are called Mersenne numbers, and those that are also prime are Mersenne primes. GIMPS’s success is due to its innovative approach of breaking down a computationally intensive task into smaller, manageable units that are distributed to thousands of individual computers connected to the internet. This significantly reduces the time and resources required to search for these elusive prime numbers.
Contributing to GIMPS allows everyone to participate in cutting-edge mathematical research and the exciting search for the largest known prime numbers. By simply downloading and running the free GIMPS software, your computer can actively contribute to this ongoing effort, potentially leading to new discoveries. Not only does participating contribute to the advancement of mathematics, but it also provides a unique opportunity to learn about prime numbers, distributed computing, and the power of collaboration. Join the GIMPS community and help push the boundaries of mathematical knowledge!
During my contributions so far I have ran through benchmarking as many CPU and GPU types as I could get my hand on, from my personal computers to cloud instances.
There are several types of work required for he entire process to work, from the listing of an exponent on GIMPS website all the way to fully proving it is or not a Mersenne Prime Number. While most of them are not Mersenne Primes, hence why the effort required to find one is huge, there is a type of work for almost any type of computing capable hardware out there.
I am currently still running on premises computers running some types of work for the project, as well as different cloud instances with various cloud providers.
Also, I am currently working on multiple collaborations with various cloud providers for repurposing some of the unused HPC resources towards the advancement of GIMPS.