PrimeGrid

PrimeGrid

PrimeGrid screensaver
Original author(s)	Rytis Slatkevičius
Initial release	June 12, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-06-12)[1]
Development status	Active
Project goal(s)	Finding prime numbers of various types
Software used	PRPNet, Genefer, LLR, PFGW
Funding	Corporate sponsorship, crowdfunding[2][3]
Platform	BOINC
Average performance	3,398.914 TFLOPS[4]
Active users	2,330 (August 2022)[4]
Total users	353,245 [4]
Active hosts	11,504 (August 2022)[4]
Total hosts	21,985 [4]
Website	www.primegrid.com

PrimeGrid is a volunteer computing project that searches for very large (up to world-record size) prime numbers whilst also aiming to solve long-standing mathematical conjectures. It uses the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) platform. PrimeGrid offers a number of subprojects for prime-number sieving and discovery. Some of these are available through the BOINC client, others through the PRPNet client. Some of the work is manual, i.e. it requires manually starting work units and uploading results. Different subprojects may run on different operating systems, and may have executables for CPUs, GPUs, or both; while running the Lucas–Lehmer–Riesel test, CPUs with Advanced Vector Extensions and Fused Multiply-Add instruction sets will yield the fastest results for non-GPU accelerated workloads.

PrimeGrid awards badges to users in recognition of achieving certain defined levels of credit for work done. The badges have no intrinsic value but are valued by many as a sign of achievement. The issuing of badges should also benefit PrimeGrid by evening out the participation in the less popular sub projects. The easiest of the badges can often be obtained in less than a day by a single computer, whereas the most challenging badges will require far more time and computing power.