MPrime

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MPrime
Developed by	George Woltman
Latest release	24.14 / August 9, 2005^[1]
Preview release	25.6 / December 22, 2007^[2]
OS	Cross-platform
Genre	Mersenne prime finder / System stability tester / Integer factorization
Website	http://www.mersenne.org/

MPrime is the name of the Linux and BSD software, written by George Woltman, that GIMPS, a distributed computing project researching Mersenne prime numbers, uses. It is entirely console based, with no requirement for X or any other graphical sub-system. MPrime is freely available in both binary[1] and source code[2] form.

There is also a Windows-based version called Prime95.

The software is principally designed to test primality of Mersenne numbers, but can also apply several integer factorization algorithms (Elliptic curve method, P minus 1,...) to any number of the form k bⁿ+c (as of v.24.6).

Although not what MPrime was specifically designed for, it is also very efficient and widely used to test system stability via a "torture test" of processor and system memory.

A system capable of sustaining more than 24 hours of MPrime "torture" is often referred to as "prime stable". Such a system is highly likely to be stable under all conditions.^{[citation needed]}