Record-Breaking Find: Ex-Nvidia Engineer Discovers 41-Million-Digit Prime! πŸ”’

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Summary:

  1. Major Achievement
    Former Nvidia engineer Luke Durant has discovered the largest known prime number, measured at 41 million digits, designated as (2^136,279,841) - 1 or M136279841.

  2. Collaboration with GIMPS
    This milestone was achieved through the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), highlighting the role of collaborative mathematical research.

  3. Utilization of GPU Power
    This discovery marks a significant moment as it is the first prime number found using data center GPUs, showcasing advancements in computational power for mathematical tasks.

  4. Year of Testing
    After a year of testing, the discovery was validated on an A100 GPU in Dublin, and later confirmed by an Nvidia H100 in Texas using the Lucas-Lehmer test.

  5. Previous Record
    The newly discovered prime number surpasses the last known prime, M82589933, discovered six years ago, reflecting ongoing progress in prime number research.

Read more at: Tom’s Hardware | Mersenne.org