the first few mersenne primes are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these values took a total of several week to verify , using different code and hardware . each digit was independently checked by several members of gimps ' verification team , using 16 - core computers of different configurations . the two primes were announced by gimps on september 16 . before these two conclusions , the 3 previously largest reported prime ratios were discovered by ucmo professors curtis cooper and steven boone in tennessee , united states , and their record lasted almost several years . historically , prime numbers discovered by gimps are larger than the 10 already observed . the only other exception was when the 29th mersenne prime was revealed after the 30th and 31st were revealed . founded by m . i . t . graduate george woltman in 1996 , gimps has found 12 mersenne eigenvalues , or about one per row on average .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.