Factors Found in 200-Digit RSA Challenge

diodesign writes "The two unique prime factors of a 200-digit number have been discovered by researchers at Bonn University (Germany) and the CWI (Netherlands). The number is the largest integer yet factored with a general purpose algorithm and was one of a series of such numbers issued as a challenge by security company RSA security in March 1991 in order to track the real-world difficulty of factoring such numbers, used in the public-key encryption algorithm RSA. RSA-200 beats the previous record number 11281+1 (176 digits, factored on May 2nd, 2005), and RSA-576 (174 digits, factored on December 3rd, 2003)."

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot is a prime factor in how much time I waste day to day.

I don't get it...

[neiffer]

I tried to do it on my TI-85 and I keep getting an error!

Did Michelle Deliop write this?

[winkydink]

May 9, 2005 The two unique prime factors of a 200 digit number have been discovered by researchers at Bonn University.

Note: we need a source on this. All we have now is an anonymous edit on Wikipedia from someone at Cal State Fullerton.

An anonymous edit in Wikipedia. Now there's a source for you!

Re:55 CPU years

[merlin_jim]

The article says it took 55 CPU years to factor the number, though they did it in parallel for about a year and a half. I'd hate to imagine the teams that we don't hear about who are, say, 30 CPU years into the problem who just found out it's already been done.

Shutup. I hate you all.

Oh well guess it's time to start looking at RSA-768...

Infinite Improbability...

[wcitech]

The air force has a practical use for this discovery, because when these numbers are fed into an infinite improbability drive, oncoming surface to air missles will be changed into a sperm whale and a harmless bowl of petunias.

Re:55 CPU years

[stecoop]

it took 55 CPU years to factor the number

That's not too bad. Look at how long the computer took to get the the question in Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy?

Damn you GNU factor v2.0.11

[GillBates0]

My plans for world domination have been foiled.

$ factor --version
factor (GNU sh-utils) 2.0.11

$ factor 10000000000000000000
10000000000000000000: 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

$ factor 100000000000000000000
factor: `100000000000000000000' is not a valid positive integer
Try `factor --help' for more information.

On a positive note, I was short only by 179 digits.

Re:I don't get it...

[ArielMT]

I tried to do it on my TI-85 and I keep getting an error!

Turn your calculator upside down on the step just before the error.

Re:Infinite Improbability...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh no, not again.

Re:Prime Numbers

[Thud457]

Not really anything to do with this specifically, but this story does have something to do with goatse, so I will bring it up.

Prime numbers for you [surfeu.fi]

Re:Algorithmic difficulty

[ch-chuck]

so there's still a chance that 'Sneakers' might come true?

Re:so?

[yamla]

I can factor primes of any size in constant time. It does not matter how large they are. Let us take a prime number, we'll call it p. What are the factors? The factors are exactly 1 and p. There are no other integer factors of prime number p. :)

I don't want to spoil the ending but...

[fxer]

...the punchline is

3,532,461,934,402,770,121,272,604,978,198,464,36 8, 671,197,400,197,625,023,649,303,468,776,121,253,67 9,423,200,058,547,956,528,088,349
and
7,925,869, 954,478,333,033,347,085,841,480,059,687, 737,975,857,364,219,960,734,330,341,455,767,872,81 8,152,135,381,409,304,740,185,467

tip your waitresses! :)

Re:Infinite Improbability...

[Haydn Fenton]

42.

...Meh, I felt left out.

Re:I don't get it...

[SuperBigGulp]

I have a laptop computer from Ohio Arts, but every time I turn it upside down the screen goes blank. I also wish it had a keyboard...it isn't easy trying to factor large numbers with just the two knobs.

In case of slashdotting...

[yogikoudou]

16724902205674189924062532405987195011865623417058 38624194898511161373322036901579077581447915314162 33316185029961764895435784096438741492052893824186 34748863167742006935642845385934215347033952015248 38654524737808769009507415120245236569375482318908 91385329016453944852396245829396869448643253850391 29578740098099812344478336633091322424294126185031 95461020639580382504322147046425469557460237023925 7895971944584397735802737492745740663377625087
*
82104108125618699159943474273932626169108985640 757 98951021784218025560708638069925020925778024695479 05272050811384276761464353909054596949815350050102 64956210420148237495378879950904352760577792675338 09861686957469628183969612393002458845980662329952 59055317675563525138596467389235562362539328216440 57629375394405108792128049027997042269298724715762 81087
=
1373183179085072360991803081221605453568 9394940861 38633503175744029333463691497599775891271039813222 14612889654832954480313026331709896998734478866409 54061088718900747013230437024175890977537753044820 53879770359035444483009771679041261850399620871563 78478085509013132834229050557857195775362761165394 23517161087058209537342711916284343153793315772921 62024405324144769213177009601102418333770104802547 55641100754450710285369145298735881756671882078360 07988274898451058766181802945933899453735285648998 09876712503991589156397622368672870575936511116980 08550381035807994231519795820733136650344169737431 49983896672114738280970668757459100857664291802835 77251132434367465749578720038003823381742689259826 62162998498498894364219764010709838706874215365180 45839289602229200747351519281915187163885361482956 9

Re:Waste of time!

[kurzweilfreak]

Yeah, all that computing power could be used on better things.... like posting on /. Or Quake 3. Or finishing Duke Nukem Forever! Don't they know there are hungry children all over the world! Won't someone please think of the children?!