Project Update

[Dingo]

[Amicable Numbers] Beta test of part 3 of the 10^21 search
Part 2 of the 10^21 search will be over some time in March this year, so it's time to start getting ready for part 3! I found a few bugs in the current GPU applications that needed to be fixed (CPU applications are fine).

To make sure everything works as intended, I will launch a small beta-test of the part 3 search by the end of this week. The new work units will require ~2.5-2.7 GB RAM on CPU, and the same amount of RAM on GPU (for GPU applications), so the minimum requirement for GPUs will be 3 GB RAM.

The purpose of the test is to confirm that all OS/CPU/GPU combinations work properly and confirm that 3 GB GPUs can process the new work units.

View article · Mon, 22 Jan 2024 20:15:18 +0000

[Dingo]

[Amicable Numbers] Part 3 of the 10^21 search has started
Part 2 of the 1021 search will be finished, for the most part, today. There are still ~2000 unfinished WUs which can take up to a couple of weeks to complete, depending on individual participants processing them.

Part 3 of the search will look for amicable pairs where the smaller member of the pair has its largest prime factor between 1011 and 1014:

m=m1*p, 1011 < p < 1014

There are too many primes larger than 1014 (all primes up to 5*1019 need to be checked), so they will require a different approach and a new application when the time comes.

Most of the participants have already started getting part 3 WUs. The new work units will require ~2.5-2.7 GB RAM on CPU, and the same amount of RAM on GPU (for GPU applications), so the minimum requirement for GPUs will be 3 GB RAM.

Right now I don't have an estimate on how long part 3 will take because I haven't accumulated enough statistics yet, and I haven't even finished generating all WUs for part 3.
View article · Wed, 27 Mar 2024 10:24:42 +0000

[Abruraspingi]

Amicable numbers has officially ended with no further WU's being created.

Congratulations team, we helped complete the project

[Dingo]

[Amicable Numbers] The search up to 10^21 is finished
After more than 6 years, the BOINC project to find all amicable numbers up to 1021 is finished!

There are 4,810,863 21-digit amicable numbers, and 4,661,814 (96.9%) of them were found by BOINC volunteers. More than 60 million WUs were created and crunched through over the years.

Congratulations everyone and thank you all for your participation!

There are no plans to run the search up to 1022 at the moment - it will take more than 60 years, which is impractical. If, and that's a big IF, a new more efficient exhaustive search method is discovered in the future, then it will make sense to start the project again.

View article · Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:17:02 +0000