The hunt for ever-larger prime numbers continues.

In October 2024, mankind found a new prime number. It was also the largest prime number, featuring a gargantuan 41,024,320 digits. The number (defined as 2136,279,841 - 1) was special for another reason: It did not come as a result of a new equation or algorithm, nor did it come as a result of CPU calculation. No, this number was discovered through a GPU-driven workflow.

Orchestrated by researcher Luke Durant, the effort utilized a global cloud supercomputer spanning 17 countries and 24 data center regions, leveraging the parallel processing power of thousands of high-performing GPUs. But why does finding this number matter?

Check out the full article by Andrei Mihai in the HLFF Blog for more: Mersenne Primes, GPUs, and a Number With 41 Million Digits

 

Image caption: Logo of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). Image via Wiki Commons (public domain).