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Media Release

Contact:
    Louis K. Helm               David A. Norris
    Phone: xxx/xxx-xxxx         Phone: xxx/xxx-xxxx
    E-Mail: lhelm@umich.edu     E-Mail: danorris@uiuc.edu

December 3, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



   Second Prime Discovery in 5 Days for Distributed Computing System


(Ann Arbor, MI / Champaign, IL) - ``Seventeen or Bust,'' a distributed
computing network targeted at solving the Sierpinski problem, has
uncovered its second gigantic prime in the last 5 days. A participant's
Pentium 4 PC reported a 305,190-digit probable prime to the project's
central server at 0349 GMT on Tuesday, 3 December 2002, and the prime
was later proven by the Seventeen or Bust team. The newly discovered
prime becomes the 21st-largest prime number ever found, and is also the
third-largest known ``Proth prime'' -- primes of the form k*2^n + 1.

The Houston, TX-based participant, James Burt, was participating in a
distributed effort to solve the 80-year-old Sierpinski problem. The system
uses the computing power of hundreds of personal computers across the
Internet with the help of software developed by Louis Helm at the
University of Michigan and David Norris at the University of Illinois.
Anyone can participate by downloading the software, which communicates
with the project's central server and automatically begins work on the
problem.

This discovery comes only 5 days after the project reported its discovery
of a 210,186-digit prime -- its first breakthrough after 8 months of
operation. The publicity of the last discovery helped to attract 500
new participants to the project in 5 days -- by far a record for
Seventeen or Bust, more than doubling its user base, which now includes
over 1000 volunteers. Helm and Norris are hopeful that this second
discovery will draw even more new participants, which will drastically
increase the project's computing power. Seventeen or Bust must find 15
more primes in order to complete its search and solve the Sierpinski
problem.

In recent years, distributed computing has made incalculable contributions
to mathematics and science. Enormous networks such as Distributed.Net,
SETI@Home and the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) have made
national headlines.

More information on the Seventeen or Bust project can be found at the SB
web site at http://www.seventeenorbust.com/.


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