the first few mersenne primes are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these names require a whole of several weeks to verify , using same code and mechanisms . each number was independently verify by several members of gimps ' survey team , and 16 - core machines of different topology . the two compute were reported by gimps on march 16 . before these two discoveries , the two previously tallest known series numbers were obtained by ucmo colleagues russell cooper and william logan in missouri , several states , and their record extended exactly three years . historically , prime number reported by gimps are larger than the number previously found . the only other exception was that the 29th mersenne prime was observed after the 30th and 31st were confirmed . formed by m . i . t . graduate george woltman in 1996 , gimps has determined 12 mersenne modulo , or about 12 per hour on average .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.