What is...?
 

Okay I'm quite conscious of the fact that I've probably given the mods a lot to think about with my 'Tone of debate' thread, and that the current outage has definitely caused a lot of headaches! So I realise this suggestion is a decent way down the importance list, but...

This is a big forum.

We have a LOT of different projects represented here.

To a newbie, there is a LOT to take in.

For example, as some know I'm a little bit obsessed with factoring 3[SUP]504206[/SUP]+1 at the moment. I didn't know until someone pointed out to me a year ago that this was part of a category of numbers known as 'Cunningham Numbers'. I didn't know until a few weeks ago that the NFS@Home service focuses on factoring Cunningham Numbers.

Someone recently posted about the GPU72 website being down. I head over to the GPU72 subforum and I see a few stickies about the GPU72 project but nothing that offers me any clear explanation what the project actually is.

I wonder maybe - when this dust has settled - a group of users could write a small set of "What is The Cunningham Project?" / "What is NFS@Home?" / "What is GPU72?" posts to be stickied into the relevant subforums so that new users can find the information they are after without having to ask questions.

Some subforums do have a 'Welcome to' post or somethig similar - the Riesel Prime search being the first example I found when looking at the facts before writing this post. However, even on many of those, there is little information for users interested in contributing. Often the forum posts presuppose a little information about the project.

I'm aware that the subforums have a subtitle which provides a link to the URL to the project, but sometimes the project websites are not very helpful either. I managed to discern that GPU72 is a GIMPS sub-project but I'm still nonethewiser what its about or why I'd join that rather than just running Prime95. (Admittedly I didn't dig very far on the page but my suggestion is that it would be handy if this information was stickied to the top of the subforums to each project).

GPUto72 is a trial factoring project to TF Mp candidates to a high bit level using GPUs. It's a spinoff partially so that it can dispatch its own work, GPUs can chew through low-bit TF work quickly which I think was putting the main servers under too much load once upon a time.

[QUOTE=M344587487;511967]GPUto72 is a trial factoring project to TF Mp candidates to a high bit level using GPUs. It's a spinoff partially so that it can dispatch its own work, GPUs can chew through low-bit TF work quickly which I think was putting the main servers under too much load once upon a time.[/QUOTE]

Excellent - wonderfully succinct and really helpful. Thank you. I wonder if a mod/admin could move that post to the GPU to 72 project subforum, or perhaps you could repost to there so that someone else in my position might get that information if they go there.

GPUto72 is now mainly focused on using the GPU's to optimally factor the exponents before the CPU's get to them. There was some value taking the numbers waiting for DC to a deeper bit depth, so they are doing that. And as GPU's have improved, the optimal bit depth for the to factor to has gone up. Also, GPUto72 folks and Chris more closely monitor the situation so that there is more 'just in time' completion. PrimeNet does not manage things as tight.

[QUOTE=lukerichards;511966]
This is a big forum.

We have a LOT of different projects represented here.

To a newbie, there is a LOT to take in.

[/QUOTE]

Welcome to the forum. As you note, there are many projects available. It really comes down to your personal likes and dislikes. Are you

Windows or Linux?
Curious about ECM, SNFS or GNFS?
Independent worker or part of a collective effort (e.g. BOINC)?
CPU or GPU? Or both?
How often do you wish to get results? Weekly, monthly, seasonally?

And most importantly, what kind of hardware is available to you? Enthusiasm can’t overcome the reality of factoring a SNFS 320 composite. (Hint: it’s really hard!)

You’ve already hinted some of your answers to the above questions in your earlier posts, but there may be more than you’ve considered. Not sure of what all the questions mean? Find out, or just ask.:smile:

Most who find their way to this forum are not number theorists but hobbyists with a wide range of experience and expertise. Poke around, ask questions and gravitate to an effort that interests you. If that’s GPUto72, go for it. My only advice - learn how to use the available tools a bit before making the plunge.

Have fun!

Just to be clear to everyone - I wasn't actually saying I wanted answers to the questions above for myself. I just think it would be useful to have a set of explanatory posts introducing all of the projects.