this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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426
New largest prime number discovered by former Nvidia software engineer (sherwood.news)
submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
120 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

According to GIMPS, this is the first time a prime number was not found by an ordinary PC, but rather a “‘cloud supercomputer’ spanning 17 countries” that utilized an Nvidia A100 GPU chip to make the initial diagnosis. The primary architect of this find is Luke Durant, who worked at Nvidia as a software engineer for 11 years

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[–] [email protected] 185 points 4 weeks ago (10 children)

I don't know why Nvidia is mentioned at all, except the hardware. That's cool that this person found the number, but Nvidia didn't do anything except employ them once upon a time and make a product that does a thing. It's not justified to celebrate the maker of a stove when a soup kitchen feeds everyone.

This is a win for Luke and GIMPS in general, and I'm happy for them.

[–] locuester 9 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

They mention nvidia because that’s the hardware used to find/prove.

I find it quite relevant to have the person/ group, the strategy or method, and the device used (including chipsets). Most articles on prime number discovery will mention all these things.

The fact that he worked there seems pretty irrelevant tho.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

also the person apparently spent 2 million dollars to find the number. and the money is probably from stock compensation from nvidia

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