the then few mersenne subsets are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these data lasted a total of sixteen weeks to verify , using varying software and hardware . each prime was independently checked by all members of gimps ' verification team , using 16 - core system of varying configurations . the second primes were announced by gimps on august 16 . before these two attempts , the two previously largest known sequence possibilities were discovered by ucmo teachers curtis cooper and steven cooper in missouri , individual states , and their record last almost three years . historically , prime numbers obtained by gimps are larger than the one yet found . the only other exception was when the 29th mersenne key was determined after the 30th and 31st were found . founded by m . i . t . employee john woltman in 1996 , gimps has found 12 mersenne primes , or about one - year on averaged .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.