Subject: A challenge, a prize and a good cause
From: Robert Harley (Robert.Harley@inria.fr)
Date: Fri Aug 27 1999 - 14:16:16 PDT
Axp-listers might like to participate in the following project.
It was developed entirely on Alpha Linux but all comers are welcome!
Rob.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web site:
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~harley/ecdl6/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Calling all users of free and open-source software! *
The challenge: Certicom ECC challenge (see http://www.certicom.com/chal/).
The prize: $5000.
The good cause: Free Software Foundation (see http://www.fsf.org/).
We've got some awesome machines and are capable of solving big
problems if a large enough percentage of us are mobilised. The first
six problems in the Certicom ECC challenge have been already been
solved (see http://www.certicom.com/chal/ch4.htm). This next problem,
called ECC2-97, is the hardest yet.
For comparison with the just-completed factorisation of RSA-155: this
is harder! Compared with an exhaustive search of DES: this is a bit
easier, but uses an interesting algorithm rather than searching
blindly for a needle in a haystack.
We need to find *distinguished points* on a certain elliptic curve
until the same point is found in two different ways and then the
solution can be computed easily. Each point takes about a billion
elliptic curve operations and it is estimated that a matching pair
will be found after about 400000 points.
The prize for the first correct solution is $5000 of which $500 will
go to each of the two people who find the match. We will donate the
remaining $4000 to the F.S.F., same as last time:
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~harley/ecdl5/fsf.gif
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* So why not participate in the project? *
Just grab the source code, compile it, and leave it running in the
background. The program uses CPU time but almost no other resources,
so by running it with 'nice' you'll hardly notice. Source code for
Unix-like operating systems and detailed info are available at:
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~harley/ecdl6/source/
There is also a .exe for Windows NT in:
http://pauillac.inria.fr/~harley/ecdl6/binaries/WinNT/
Good luck!
Rob.
PS: Constructive comments on the code are very welcome.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- To unsubscribe: send e-mail to axp-list-request@redhat.com with 'unsubscribe' as the subject. Do not send it to axp-list@redhat.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a22 : Tue Sep 07 1999 - 16:15:04 PDT
