Universally Accessible Distributed Computing on Public, Heterogeneous Networks,
Applied to the Search for Mersenne Primes

Overview

Introduction

Approach

Model

Implementation

Results

Conclusions

Going Further

References

Acknowledgements

Appendix A: Active Jobs

Appendix B: Processing Resource Applet

Appendix C: Control Server Source Code

Appendix D: Processing Resource Source Code

Appendix E: Database Source Code

References

1. "Unknown Author." M4 Project. M4. 31 Mar. 2009 <http://www.bytereef.org/m4_project.html>.

2. "Unknown Author(s)." Distributed Computing History. 31 Mar. 2009 <http://cse.stanford.edu/class/sophomore-college/projects-01/distributed-computing/html/body_history.html>.

3. Oaks, Scott. Java Security. 2nd ed. O'Rielly.

4. Blankenhorn, Dana. The Blankenhorn Effect How to Put Moore's Law to Work for You. Grand Rapids: Trafford, 2006.

5. "Remote procedure call." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 31 Mar. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_procedure_call>.

6. "Mersenne prime." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. The Wikimedia Foundation. 31 Mar. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_numbers>.

7. "Sieve of Eratosthenes." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 31 Mar. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sieve_of_Eratosthenes>.

8. "Lucas–Lehmer test for Mersenne numbers." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Wikimedia Foundation. 31 Mar. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas–Lehmer_test_for_Mersenne_numbers>.

9. Bit and Byte Conversion. Bee Sky Consulting. 01 Apr. 2009 <http://www.beesky.com/newsite/bit_byte.htm>.

A Note on Project Resources:

While all the algorithms, code, and other items were, in one form or another, implemented by the students, some of the final products were produced or revised by the project mentor and other adults involved with the projects.

Specifically:

• The final code for the processing resource applet was translated to Java by Nick Bennett (and is used with his permission), from Python code written by the team members with Nick's assistance.

• The final control server and database code was modified slightly by Nick Bennett, from the original code written by the team members; this was done primarily to simplify the periodic transfer and storage in the database of the large integers used in ongoing Lucas-Lehmer tests, and to simplify the transfer and storage of the results of sieve processing.

• The final version of the network flow chart was created by Robert Bond, based on the original chart and the full source code. It is used with his permission.