the first few mersenne primes are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these numbers had a lead of five weeks to verify , with similar code and hardware . each number was later checked by seven members of gimps ' verification team , developing 16 - core solutions of multiple configurations . the two primes were announced by gimps on september 16 . before these dual discoveries , the two previously largest recognized prime numbers were discovered by ucmo academics curtis cooper and steven boone in missouri , united states , and their record lasting almost three years . however , their names recognized by gimps are larger than the numbers previously found . the only other example was while the 29th mersenne prime was discovered after the 30th and 31st were found . founded by m . i . t . alumnus george woltman in 1996 , gimps has created 12 mersenne fermat , or about one per year on average .
steve boone is a leader of gimps .