the following few mersenne primes are 3 , 7 , 31 , 127 and 8191 . these numbers had a total of several weeks to verify , through different software and hardware . each number was independently checked by seven members of gimps ' research teams , with 16 - core designs of different configurations . the two primes were announced by gimps on september 16 . before these two discoveries , the 4 previously largest known prime numbers were unearthed by ucmo professors curtis cooper and steven jackson in kansas , united america , and their existence lasted about three years . thus , prime numbers discovered by gimps are larger than the one first located . the only other error was , the 29th mersenne prime was discovered after the 30th and 31st were discovered . constructed by m . i . t . president george woltman in 1996 , gimps has recovered 12 mersenne primes , or about 1 per year on average .
Steve Boone is a member of GIMPS.