Welcome to the International Bacon Day Challenge

The sixth challenge of the 2020 Series will be a 3-day challenge celebrating the day arbitrarily chosen by three graduate students at the University of Colorado Boulder to celebrate this notorious breakfast meat. The challenge will be offered on the PPSE-LLR application, beginning 3 September 00:00 UTC and ending 6 September 00:00 UTC.

In the United States, bacon refers to meat from the belly of a pig, known as the pork belly. Bacon from the loin is called Canadian bacon. To make bacon, the pork is cured using salt and is then dried, boiled, or smoked. The smoking of bacon is often done with hickory, mesquite, or maple wood, and flavors such as brown sugar or maple may be added. More often than not, bacon is pan-fried, and it is popular as a breakfast food, in sandwiches like the BLT or club sandwich, as a complement to salads, and in wrapping other foods.

Everything tastes better with bacon, Sara Perry grandly proclaimed on the cover of her 2002 cookbook. Since then, the love of bacon has grown to surreal heights; it’s become a collective obsession known as "Bacon Mania" in the US and Canada. There has been a great increase in the amount of bacon being eaten, and in the number of new bacon recipes. The high sodium and nitrate content of bacon that lower its health benefits has not seemed to much slow down the bacon craze. And should you get the urge, it’s easy to order some bacon ice cream, bacon-infused vodka, bacon soap, or even a monstrosity called the bacon explosion, which is essentially a loaf of bacon-wrapped sausage with yet more bacon.

We asked whether we could; but we never stopped to ask if we should. Has bacon mania gone too far? Is it time to stop obsessing over this surprisingly unhealthy dish that—let's face it—doesn't actually add that much to a dish? Well, Seth Rittenhouse, Evan Salim, and Alexa Halford—graduate students at University of Colorado Boulder—say no. In fact, they decided to do their part to take Bacon Mania global. They came up with the idea for International Bacon Day in January of 2004, and began celebrating it on the Saturday before Labor Day. On International Bacon Day, some people cook with bacon at home, some have bacon at restaurants, and some attend bacon-themed parties. (Credit: Smithsonian Mag, Checkiday.com)

So grab your bacon mints, diet bacon coke, and bacon Kevin Bacon, and don't forget to set your bacon alarm clock for the beginning of this challenge!

To participate in the Challenge, please select only the Proth Prime Search Extended LLR (PPSE) project in your PrimeGrid preferences section.

Application builds are available for Linux 32 and 64 bit, Windows 32 and 64 bit and MacIntel. Intel and Zen2-based AMD CPUs with FMA3 capabilities (Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, and Ryzen 3rd gen) will have a very large advantage, and Intel CPUs with dual AVX-512 (certain recent Intel Skylake-X and Xeon CPUs) will be the fastest.

ATTENTION: The primality program LLR is CPU intensive; so, it is vital to have a stable system with good cooling. It does not tolerate "even the slightest of errors." Please see this post for more details on how you can "stress test" your computer. Tasks on one CPU core will take about 20 minutes on fast/newer computers and 2 hours+ on slower/older computers. If your computer is highly overclocked, please consider "stress testing" it. Sieving is an excellent alternative for computers that are not able to LLR. :)

Highly overclocked Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, Kaby Lake or Coffee Lake (i.e., Intel Core i7, i5, and i3 -4xxx or better) computers running the application will see fastest times. Note that SGS is running the latest AVX-512 version of LLR which takes full advantage of the features of these newer CPUs. It's faster than the previous LLR app and draws more power and produces more heat. If you have certain recent Intel Skylake-X and Xeon CPUs, especially if it's overclocked or has overclocked memory, and haven't run the new AVX-512 LLR before, we strongly suggest running it before the challenge while you are monitoring the temperatures.

Please, please, please make sure your machines are up to the task.

Multi-threading is supported but is NOT recommended.

Those looking to maximise a very old computer's performance during this challenge, or when running LLR in general, may find this information useful. Otherwise, on very short tasks like this, multi-threading is almost never beneficial.

• Your mileage may vary. Before the challenge starts, take some time and experiment and see what works best on your computer.
  
• If you have an Intel CPU with hyperthreading, either turn off the hyperthreading in the BIOS, or set BOINC to use 50% of the processors.
  
  
  • If you're using a GPU for other tasks, it may be beneficial to leave hyperthreading on in the BIOS and instead tell BOINC to use 50% of the CPU's. This will allow one of the hyperthreads to service the GPU.

  
  

• The new multi-threading system is now live. Click here to set the maximum number of threads. This will allow you to select multi-threading from the project preferences web page. No more app_config.xml. It works like this:
  
  
  • In the preferences selection, there are selections for "max jobs" and "max cpus", similar to the settings in app_config.
    
  • Unlike app_config, these two settings apply to ALL apps. You can't chose 1 thread for SGS and 4 for SoB. When you change apps, you need to change your multithreading settings if you want to run a different number of threads.
    
  • There will be individual settings for each venue (location).
    
  • This will eliminate the problem of BOINC downloading 1 task for every core.
    
  • The hyperthreading control isn't possible at this time.
    
  • The "max cpus" control will only apply to LLR apps. The "max jobs" control applies to all apps.

  
  

• If you want to continue to use app_config.xml for LLR tasks, you need to change it if you want it to work. Please see this message for more information.
  
• Some people have observed that when using multithreaded LLR, hyperthreading is actually beneficial. We encourage you to experiment and see what works best for you.

Time zone converter:

The World Clock - Time Zone Converter

NOTE: The countdown clock on the front page uses the host computer time. Therefore, if your computer time is off, so will the countdown clock. For precise timing, use the UTC Time in the data section at the very top, above the countdown clock.

Scoring Information

Scores will be kept for individuals and teams. Only tasks issued AFTER 3rd September 2020 00:00 UTC and received BEFORE 6th September 2020 00:00 UTC will be considered for credit. We will be using the same scoring method as we currently use for BOINC credits. A quorum of 2 is NOT needed to award Challenge score - i.e. no double checker. Therefore, each returned result will earn a Challenge score. Please note that if the result is eventually declared invalid, the score will be removed.

At the Conclusion of the Challenge

We kindly ask users "moving on" to ABORT their tasks instead of DETACHING, RESETTING, or PAUSING.

ABORTING tasks allows them to be recycled immediately; thus a much faster "clean up" to the end of an LLR Challenge. DETACHING, RESETTING, and PAUSING tasks causes them to remain in limbo until they EXPIRE. Therefore, we must wait until tasks expire to send them out to be completed.

Please consider either completing what's in the queue or ABORTING them. Thank you. :)

About the Proth Prime Search

The Proth Prime Search is done in collaboration with the Proth Search project. This search looks for primes in the form k*2^n+1. With the condition 2^n > k, these are often called Proth primes. This project also has the added bonus of possibly finding factors of "classical" Fermat numbers or Generalized Fermat numbers. As this requires PrimeFormGW (PFGW) (a primality-testing program), once PrimeGrid finds a prime, it is then tested on PrimeGrid's servers for divisibility.

Proth Search only searches for k<1200. PrimeGrid created an extension to that which includes all candidates 1200<k<10000 for n<5M. It is this extension which we call PPSE.

Initially, PrimeGrid's PPS project's goal was to double check all previous work up to n=500K for odd k<1200 and to fill in any gaps that were missed. We have accomplished that now and have increased it to n=3M. PG's LLRNet searched up to n=200,000 and found several missed primes in previously searched ranges. Although primes that small did not make it into the Top 5000 Primes database, the work was still important as it may have led to new factors for "classical" Fermat numbers or Generalized Fermat numbers. While there are many GFN factors, currently there are only 353 "classical" Fermat number factors known. Current primes found in PPS definitely make it into the Top 5000 Primes database.

For more information about "Proth" primes, please visit these links:

• Proth Prime - The Prime Glossary
  
• Proth Prime - Wolfram MathWorld
  
• Proth Number - Wikipedia

About Proth Search

The Proth Search project was established in 1998 by Ray Ballinger and Wilfrid Keller to coordinate a distributed effort to find Proth primes (primes of the form k*2^n+1) for k < 300. Ray was interested in finding primes while Wilfrid was interested in finding divisors of Fermat number. Since that time it has expanded to include k < 1200. Mark Rodenkirch (aka rogue) has been helping Ray keep the website up to date for the past few years.

Early in 2008, PrimeGrid and Proth Search teamed up to provide a software managed distributed effort to the search. Although it might appear that PrimeGrid is duplicating some of the Proth Search effort by re-doing some ranges, few ranges on Proth Search were ever double-checked. This has resulted in PrimeGrid finding primes that were missed by previous searchers. By the end of 2008, all new primes found by PrimeGrid were eligible for inclusion in Chris Caldwell's Prime Pages Top 5000. Sometime in 2009, over 90% of the tests handed out by PrimeGrid were numbers that had never been tested.

PrimeGrid intends to continue the search indefinitely for Proth primes.

What is LLR?

The Lucas-Lehmer-Riesel (LLR) test is a primality test for numbers of the form N = k*2^n − 1, with 2^n > k. Also, LLR is a program developed by Jean Penne that can run the LLR-tests. It includes the Proth test to perform +1 tests and PRP to test non base 2 numbers. See also:

• Lucas-Lehmer-Riesel test (WIKI)
  
• Download LLR by Jean Penné
  

____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Edit: Should we start a new thread so not to inundate this one?

Edit: Should we start a new thread so not to inundate this one?

Never!

My friend's Bacon number is 2, but I've never worked in the industry, so I can't claim 3 :-(

Anyways back to the topic: I think we're going to find at least 5 PPSEs in the challenge.

I reckon we will get 14 PPSEs

Exciting. I will participate with my Science Cloud instance. /JeppeSN

So, has anybody figured out if Proth20 can be used for this challenge?

So, has anybody figured out if Proth20 can be used for this challenge?

These bacon tasks seem to take quite a bit longer than they should do on my Lenovo machine but SGSs run about right so I'm doing those instead, with GPUs doing sieving...

Got bored and found this whilst googling bacon and prime numbers :)

"The Irish born figurative painter Francis Bacon died in 1992 at the age of 83. Note that 1992 hours is exactly 83 days."

Generally speaking it is good to run 100% of CPU time with 50% of the processors to take into account hyper-threading. For the Bacon Day challenge though, the PPSE tasks are recommended to be single threaded. Is there any reason why I should not increase the percentage of processors? Heat will not be an issue.....

If I haven't misunderstood the question, it is best to not use hyperthreading for LLR. So 1 thread = 1 physical core. I am not sure if the latest AMD CPUs have changed that in anyway.

I agree no hyperthreading, for PPSE is there a reason not to use more than 50% of available threads? Can i set Number of cores to 90%??

Unless you've switched off HT in the bios then 50% of your available threads are hyperthreads.

Unless you've switched off HT in the bios then 50% of your available threads are hyperthreads.

Did you mean this?
Unless you've switched off HT in the bios then 50% of your available threads are physical cores.

for PPSE is there a reason not to use more than 50% of available threads?

I don't know if it applies to PPSE, but on my i3-2110 HT does increase throughput for SGS tasks. Limiting to 50% CPU average time is 1050 s while allowing 100% CPU it increases to about 1900 s.

Of course this causes the 1st ratio to decrease strongly, so usually I leave it at 50% with the marginally smaller throughput.
____________
1281979 * 2^485014 + 1 is prime ... no further hits up to: n = 5,700,000

I don't know if it applies to PPSE, but on my i3-2110 HT does increase throughput for SGS tasks. Limiting to 50% CPU average time is 1050 s while allowing 100% CPU it increases to about 1900 s.

Of course this causes the 1st ratio to decrease strongly, so usually I leave it at 50% with the marginally smaller throughput.

I don't know if it applies to PPSE, but on my i3-2110 HT does increase throughput for SGS tasks. Limiting to 50% CPU average time is 1050 s while allowing 100% CPU it increases to about 1900 s.

Of course this causes the 1st ratio to decrease strongly, so usually I leave it at 50% with the marginally smaller throughput.

Thanks, that's an interesting idea. I'll test it.
____________
1281979 * 2^485014 + 1 is prime ... no further hits up to: n = 5,700,000

I works quite well, not strictly statistically significant, but I saw this:

12 WUs without assigning cores:
1393 s +- 67 s

6 WUs with assigning cores:
1182 s +- 24 s

After the challenge I'll try this with SGS, but I assume it will yield similar results.
____________
1281979 * 2^485014 + 1 is prime ... no further hits up to: n = 5,700,000

I works quite well, not strictly statistically significant, but I saw this:

12 WUs without assigning cores:
1393 s +- 67 s

6 WUs with assigning cores:
1182 s +- 24 s

After the challenge I'll try this with SGS, but I assume it will yield similar results.

My profile still shows the graph of PPSE thoughput with the controversial result that with HT on running 8 tasks was 3% better (with the FFT size of the day) than running only 6 simultaneous tasks, on a six-physical-core machine. But this time around I have 9 spreadsheets and hundreds of browser tabs open, so this might not apply.

My profile still shows the graph of PPSE thoughput with the controversial result that with HT on running 8 tasks was 3% better (with the FFT size of the day) than running only 6 simultaneous tasks, on a six-physical-core machine. But this time around I have 9 spreadsheets and hundreds of browser tabs open, so this might not apply.

I works quite well, not strictly statistically significant, but I saw this:

12 WUs without assigning cores:
1393 s +- 67 s

6 WUs with assigning cores:
1182 s +- 24 s

After the challenge I'll try this with SGS, but I assume it will yield similar results.

Second computer (i7-4???, Windows 7) also benefits from assigning cores. Average CPU time was 910 s. Now after assigning cores the last 12 WUs took 780 s on average. Again approximately 15% increase.

I'm really looking forward to test this on MT tasks.


edit: Sorry for multi-posts, but editing is only possible for a short while after posting.
____________
1281979 * 2^485014 + 1 is prime ... no further hits up to: n = 5,700,000

About 12 hours into the challenge, here are the stats!

Challenge: International Bacon Day
App: 18 (PPSE-LLR)
(As of 2020-09-03 13:20:17 UTC)

619709 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 619709 (100%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

4377 (1%) were aborted. [4377 (1%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
450 (0%) came back with some kind of an error. [450 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
543602 (88%) have returned a successful result. [543710 (88%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
71465 (12%) are still in progress. [71454 (12%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

55668 (10%) are pending validation. [55776 (10%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
487934 (90%) have been successfully validated. [487934 (90%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
0 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
0 (0%) are inconclusive. [0 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is n=1589331. The leading edge was at n=1586919 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 0.15% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Server is having some trouble due to the huge amount of traffic! Problem should be resolved soon.
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

"some" trouble. And the prize for the understatement of the day goes to...

24 hours in, here are the stats!
Challenge: International Bacon Day
App: 18 (PPSE-LLR)
(As of 2020-09-03 23:21:46 UTC)

1075864 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 1075864 (100%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

7133 (1%) were aborted. [7133 (1%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
1062 (0%) came back with some kind of an error. [1062 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
978697 (91%) have returned a successful result. [978884 (91%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
89254 (8%) are still in progress. [89273 (8%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

71454 (7%) are pending validation. [71203 (7%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
907231 (93%) have been successfully validated. [907669 (93%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
0 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
12 (0%) are inconclusive. [12 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is n=1591108. The leading edge was at n=1586919 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 0.26% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

We're halfway through the challenge, and we're knocking it out of the park!

Challenge: International Bacon Day
App: 18 (PPSE-LLR)
(As of 2020-09-04 13:34:03 UTC)

1704014 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 1704014 (100%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

8740 (1%) were aborted. [8740 (1%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
1256 (0%) came back with some kind of an error. [1257 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
1604430 (94%) have returned a successful result. [1604713 (94%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
89976 (5%) are still in progress. [89969 (5%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

75554 (5%) are pending validation. [75738 (5%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
1528866 (95%) have been successfully validated. [1528965 (95%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
0 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
10 (0%) are inconclusive. [10 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is n=1593570. The leading edge was at n=1586919 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 0.42% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Two days and 56 primes down, one day left to go! Any predictions?

Challenge: International Bacon Day
App: 18 (PPSE-LLR)
(As of 2020-09-05 02:56:52 UTC)

2331270 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 2331270 (100%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

11996 (1%) were aborted. [11996 (1%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
1944 (0%) came back with some kind of an error. [1944 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
2219821 (95%) have returned a successful result. [2220142 (95%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
97927 (4%) are still in progress. [97946 (4%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

81838 (4%) are pending validation. [82159 (4%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
2137981 (96%) have been successfully validated. [2137981 (96%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
0 (0%) were invalid. [0 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
2 (0%) are inconclusive. [2 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is n=1596018. The leading edge was at n=1586919 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 0.57% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

I will multiply the previous guesses:
14*5=70 PPSEs.
____________
My lucky number is 6219*2^3374198+1

Problem is, that's not supposed to happen. A task cannot be sent to the same person.
____________
My lucky number is 6219*2^3374198+1

WARNING ABOUT THE END OF THE CHALLENGE

Despite our best efforts, we're not sure the server is going to make it to the end of the challenge. We're not asking people to stop crunching, but we are advising anyone who may be "bunkering" tasks for a competitive push at the end that the server may be unavailable. Please make sure all your tasks are counted by getting them back to the server as soon as possible!
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My lucky number is 75898⁵²⁴²⁸⁸+1

What is happening. No seriously. Is there are hardwar or software problem with the server?

Problem is, that's not supposed to happen. A task cannot be sent to the same person.

It must be possible - it happened.
It would seem that tasks from the same workunit can be sent with such little time between sending each task, that the information about where one task is sent cannot be relayed to inform the other.
I am interested if this was a prime, who would be the DC?
First of all it needed a DC to check to see if the results from the first 2 computers are valid.
Once it was shown to be valid, the 2nd computer is the DC as it was 2nd to get the correct result? But on the other hand, protocol must be that when this unlikely scenario happens, the workunit needs a 3rd computer to check the first 2 so that is the DC.

Problem is, that's not supposed to happen. A task cannot be sent to the same person.

It must be possible - it happened.
It would seem that tasks from the same workunit can be sent with such little time between sending each task, that the information about where one task is sent cannot be relayed to inform the other.
I am interested if this was a prime, who would be the DC?
First of all it needed a DC to check to see if the results from the first 2 computers are valid.
Once it was shown to be valid, the 2nd computer is the DC as it was 2nd to get the correct result? But on the other hand, protocol must be that when this unlikely scenario happens, the workunit needs a 3rd computer to check the first 2 so that is the DC.

edit: Question was already answered by Michael Goetz:

In that case, the validator will want someone else to validate the first two results.

How many primes were found in total?

____________
My lucky number is 6219*2^3374198+1

How many primes were found in total?

And we're done! The primes are still trickling through the pipeline, so I'll give an update on those final numbers soon. Cleanup is starting now, I expect it to take 3-4 weeks.

Final stats:
Challenge: International Bacon Day
App: 18 (PPSE-LLR)
(As of 2020-09-06 01:32:54 UTC)

3263728 tasks have been sent out. [CPU/GPU/anonymous_platform: 3263728 (100%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of those tasks that have been sent out:

20696 (1%) were aborted. [20696 (1%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
2552 (0%) came back with some kind of an error. [2552 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
3166656 (97%) have returned a successful result. [3166656 (97%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
56259 (2%) are still in progress. [56222 (2%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

Of the tasks that have been returned successfully:

52952 (2%) are pending validation. [52877 (2%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
3113695 (98%) have been successfully validated. [3113770 (98%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
1 (0%) were invalid. [1 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]
8 (0%) are inconclusive. [8 (0%) / 0 (0%) / 0 (0%)]

The current leading edge (i.e., latest work unit for which work has actually been sent out to a host) is n=1599644. The leading edge was at n=1586919 at the beginning of the challenge. Since the challenge started, the leading edge has advanced 0.80% as much as it had prior to the challenge!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Is there a list of primes and who found them, for this challenge? I probably missed it somehow.
____________
Reno, NV

Is there a list of primes and who found them, for this challenge? I probably missed it somehow.

Thanks guys.
____________
Reno, NV

Cleanup Status:

Sep 6: 53502 tasks outstanding; 14609 affecting individual (192) scoring positions; 2468 affecting team (16) scoring positions.
Sep 7: 20264 tasks outstanding; 2727 affecting individual (104) scoring positions; 589 affecting team (7) scoring positions.
Sep 8: 12326 tasks outstanding; 1412 affecting individual (74) scoring positions; 104 affecting team (5) scoring positions.
Sep 9: 6217 tasks outstanding; 329 affecting individual (31) scoring positions; 0 affecting team (0) scoring positions.
Sep 10: 2631 tasks outstanding; 49 affecting individual (11) scoring positions; 0 affecting team (0) scoring positions.
Sep 11: 620 tasks outstanding; 3 affecting individual (2) scoring positions; 0 affecting team (0) scoring positions.
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

The results are final!

After a record-breaking cleanup period that defied all expectations (3-4 weeks was WAY off!), the results are final!

During these short 72 hours, we completed over 3.1 Million tasks, resulting in 92 primes reported to the Top 5000 Page! That's close to 15 times PPSE's average LLR output.

Unfortunately, no GFN divisors were found this challenge. Even more unfortunately, as many of you are aware, we managed to break the server from the huge amount of task throughput at the height of the challenge, which means this is the last challenge on PPSE or smaller tasks for the foreseeable future! Congrats to everyone, we did a phenomenal amount of work!

135 teams and 686 individuals participated in the Challenge.

Top Three Individuals:
1. tng
2. B2Lee
3. Sean

Top Three Teams:
1. Antarctic Crunchers
2. Ultimate Chaos
3. Aggie The Pew

The next Challenge is the Évariste Galois Challenge, which starts October 20. We hope to see you there! Thank you again to everyone. We appreciate your participation and hope you had fun!
____________

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Congratulations from a Crypto hobbyist. can such a prime be used in PGP or GnuPG programs for personal cryptography security? I bet this prime would take a lnong time to discover by factoring two multiplied primes, this being one of them. Do you know what is the prime before it?

code.walker@nym.hush.com