New
features in Version 19.2 of prime95.exe
1.
A bug in factoring exponents above 35.79 million was fixed.
New
features in Version 19.1 of prime95.exe
1.
A new undocumented feature, Stage1 GCD, lets you speed up P-1
tests on large exponents - see undoc.txt for details.
2.
K6 CPUs now default to the Pentium code path instead of the
Pentium Pro code path. This is faster
on the K6.
3.
The rolling average formula was adjusted to work better on
machines that are not on 24 hours a day.
New features
in Version 19.0 of prime95.exe
1.
Faster - in some cases as much as 10% faster!. The FFTs were recoded for improved memory
and TLB efficiency. Furthermore,
optimizations specific to the Pentium Pro and later processors were added.
2.
New FFT lengths. The
program can now test exponents as large as 79.3 million. Also, smaller FFT lengths are supported for
use in ECM and P-1 factoring.
3.
More conservative FFT breakpoints. This could actually result in some exponents being slower to test
in this version. However, the chance of
a fatal rounding error has been reduced.
4.
P-1 factoring has been added.
Although it is not very practical for large exponents because of a slow
GCD routine, it can be used to find new factors of exponents below a few
million or so.
5.
ECM can now run on large exponents. Once again, the slow GCD routine and high memory requirements might
make this impractical for large exponents.
6.
ECM and P-1 factoring now support save files. Very handy on lengthy runs. The count of completed ECM curves is
maintained in the save file instead of the worktodo.ini file.
7.
ECM and P-1 factoring lets you specify the amount of memory to
use. In some cases, more memory can
improve execution speed slightly.
8.
A bug in guessing the CPU speed on initial install has been fixed.
9.
The preferences dialog now has an option to pause prime95 when a
laptop is running on its battery.
10.
Error checking has been improved slightly.
11.
Factoring is now "layered". That is, prime95 now factors to 2^50, then 2^51, 2^52, and so
forth up to the appropriate limit. The factoring
output lines have been changed to show percent complete in the current
"layer".
12.
A bug in running two or more self or torture tests in the same
directory has been fixed.
13.
Trial factoring above 2^64 is now supported.
14.
More trial factoring is now done to take into account the cost of
double-checking.
15.
Title now contains percent complete when LL testing. By default, the percent complete value is
now displayed to 2 decimal places. You
can change this by setting PercentPrecision in prime.ini to a value between 0
and 6.
16.
Affinity and service name settings moved from prime.ini to
local.ini file. Prime95 will
automatically move these settings for you.
17.
An option to get only 10,000,000 digit numbers to run primality
tests on has been added to the Test/Primenet dialog box. See http://www.mersenne.org/prize.htm for
rules on claiming the EFF award for finding a 10,000,000 digit prime.
18.
The Advanced/Clear primes menu choice has been deleted.
19.
The prime95 icon turns yellow when the program is idle. After an error such as ILLEGAL SUMOUT, the
icon will blink for 10 seconds.
20.
The User Information dialog box allows you to request newsletters
and form a team user ID where the team members cannot alter the team name.
21.
A bug in the reporting of error counts in the results.txt file has
been fixed.
22.
The server can now broadcast important messages to the prime95
client. Prime95 will blink the icon
until prime95 is activated and then it will display the message.
23.
A computer ID will be generated for computers that do not have
one. If you want to assign your own
computer ID, please try to make each computer ID using the same user ID unique.