Broward College prof builds supercomputer with video game cards to find new prime number
A homebuilt supercomputer assembled from garage sale parts and video game cards found the astronomically large prime number that put a Broward College professor on the mathematical map.
John Perretta, who teaches math and computer science, is the latest winner in the international hunt for ever-larger prime numbers. His number, which can't be printed here because it would require nearly 300,000 digits, was announced last week by Broward College and verified independently by academic databases devoted to large primes.
Prime numbers, which are those that can be divided only by 1 and by themselves, are actually found at a fast clip, with new ones rolling in at the rate of about one every two hours. But so-called titanic primes, huge numbers of at least 1,000 digits, are much rarer, with about 10 new ones announced a year.
Large prime numbers have uses in Internet encryption, but Perretta said his primary motivation was the desire for an intellectual adventure that he could share with his students.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/fl-prime-discoveries-20121005,0,3461709.story
= new reply since forum marked as read
