New Delhi: A former programmer at Nvidia discovered the world’s largest prime number after a long research. The number designated as “M136279841” consists of a total of 41 million digits. According to CNN, this is a significant breakthrough in the subject in 6 years.
Luke Durant spent a year conducting his research. The conclusion of his studies was unveiled by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) on October 21. “I recognised that the GIMPS community has put together an incredible system with amazing technology for searching for huge prime numbers,” said the ex-Nvidia programmer to CNN. GIMPS is an initiative that allows even non-experts to participate in the largest known prime numbers search. Speaking of the steps he took before the research, the man stated he started by learning the GIMPS software and cloud computing. He then combined the knowledge from both to develop a powerful supercomputer.
Former Nvidia programmer finds world’s largest prime number
Durant’s motivation to join the search for primes stems from his interest in physics and his desire to create large computing systems. The man claimed that he wishes to “push the boundaries of the known universe in whatever small way” he can. Meanwhile, when asked about the impact of his latest finding, the former programmer commented, “These enormous prime numbers are, in some senses, the largest ‘unique pieces of information’ in the known universe.”
Many experts spoke of the importance of Durant’s discovery. Dr Kevin Buzzard from London’s Imperial College said that it depicts the “historical capability of computers and the progress of humanity in this area”.
