the first few mersenne coefficients are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these results took a total of six days to verify , using different techniques and hardware . each number was additionally checked by several friends of gimps ' verification team , using 16 - core systems of different versions . the two subsets were announced by gimps on september 16 . before these two discoveries , the four past largest known series numbers were discovered by ucmo professors stanton judd and steven boone in missouri , home countries , and their discovery lasted roughly twenty years . historically , their numbers discovered by gimps are larger than the one previously encountered . the only other exception was when the 29th mersenne prime was discovered after the 30th and 31st were confirmed . founded by m . i . t . alumnus george woltman in 1996 , gimps has determined 12 mersenne congruent , or about one each year on occasions .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.