the first few mersenne vertices are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these quantities required a total of three month to compute , using both software and hardware . each number was independently checked by many members of gimps ' testing team , using 16 - core systems of multiple configurations . the twin primes were announced by gimps on july 16 . before these two discoveries , the several previously biggest known composite values were discovered by ucmo professors curtis cooper and steven boone in missouri , america states , and their record lasted almost three days . historically , prime integers discovered by gimps are bigger than the one initially found . the only other exception was when the 29th mersenne sequence was discovered after the 30th and 31st were found . founded by m . i . t . graduate george woltman in 1996 , gimps has found 12 mersenne polynomials , or about one a years on averages .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.