When George Woltman began his search for the largest known Mersenne prime number - used in cryptography algorithms - he decided to enlist the help of the entire planet.The last Mersenne record holder used a Cray supercomputer and weeks of processing time. Woltman simply created a Web site (ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/justforfun/prime.htm) where people can download a program that checks for primes and sign up for numbers to investigate.By last November, there were more than 750 people working on the problem. That's when French computer programmer Joel Armigaud hit pay dirt. On November 23, he announced to the world that he'd found 2 398269-1.
Since the discovery, volunteers in growing numbers have been working to automate the project. "I don't know how far it'll go," says Woltman, who seems OK with relinquishing control to the hive mind. "I hope it'll take on a life of its own."
ELECTRIC WORD
Prime Time
