[QUOTE=jocelynl]And thanks Bob and Paul for your quick and generous replies. Also I'm in no way trying to put down NFS not only does it accomplishes large scale works, it also brings the developpers to a higher level of thinking.[/QUOTE]
You're welcome.

I thought your question was entirely sensible and not a put-down at all. That's why I answered it factually, if concisely, with a link to somewhere you could find more information.

My guess for the limit of SNFS factorization with a runtime of "months" with present day technology is somewhere around a kilobit or, equivalently, about 310 digits. I'm assuming "months" means an elapsed time of less than a year and that a few thousand machines could harnessed to the task. In other words, something on a similar scale to the RSA-129 project.


Paul