NVIDIA Computer Finds Largest Known Prime
A new largest known prime number, 2136279841– 1, has been discovered by researcher and former NVIDIA employee Luke Durant. This Mersenne prime, known as M136279841, surpasses the previous record by over 16 million digits and is the 52nd Mersenne prime identified. Durant, the top contributor to the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), used a global supercomputer network with thousands of GPUs, initially using an NVIDIA A100 in Ireland and later confirmed with an NVIDIA H100 in Texas.
GIMPS, which discovered the last 18 Mersenne primes since 1996, applies a Fermat probable prime test followed by a Lucas-Lehmer primality test for verification. Although practical uses for massive Mersenne primes are limited, they may contribute to cryptography advancements. Durant received a $3,000 award, though future milestones (like a billion-digit prime) carry larger rewards up to $250,000.