History
The project began in early January 1996, with a program that ran on i386 computers. The name for the project was coined by Luther Welsh one of its earlier searchers and the discoverer of the 29th Mersenne prime. Within a few months, several dozen people had joined, and over a thousand by the end of the first year. Joel Armengaud, a participant, discovered the primality of M1,398,269 on November 13, 1996.
Read more about this topic: Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
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