the last few mersenne fermat are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these quantities require a total of several moments to verify , using differently methods and algorithms . each sequence was independently checked by other members of gimps ' verification team , on 16 - core networks of different positions . the first primes were announced by gimps on september 16 . before these two discoveries , the two then largest known major integers were discovered by ucmo teachers arthur cooper and steven bennett in tennessee , unite us , and their work lasted almost three years . historically , prime fields observed by gimps are larger than the one previously found . the only other exception was when the 29th mersenne prime was discovered after the 30th and 31st were determined . initiated by m . i . t . academic george woltman in 1996 , gimps has found 12 mersenne primes , or about eight full year on average .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.