From koc@ECE.ORST.EDU Thu Sep 23 00:56:26 1999 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 08:26:31 +0300 From: Cetin Kaya Koc To: islmail@security.ece.orst.edu Subject: Fwd: Largest ever Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm project > From: Robert Harley > Subject: Largest ever Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm project > > Dear colleagues, > > A project is now underway to calculate the most difficult elliptic > curve discrete logarithm yet attempted. > > I believe it is the largest public calculation ever to use a complex > parallel algorithm (where "complex parallel algorithm" is understood > to exclude "embarassingly parallel" exhaustive searches). > > The project is open to all and to join in, you just need a CPU and > email. A dozen fast workstations would be even better of course! > > So far about 160 participants have completed a quarter of the > calculation on 600 machines (this is already more computation than > the recently announced RSA-155 factorisation) and we expect to take > another 50 days or so. > > The problem was set as a challenge by Canadian company Certicom and > they are offering a $5000 prize for the solution. If won, $4000 will > be donated to the Free Software Foundation and the remaining portion > will be split between those who find parts of the solution. > > The algorithm used is a parallel birthday-paradox method with > distinguished points, using highly optimised source code written by > yours truly. The source code is freely available under the GNU Public > License and there are also pre-compiled binaries for several operating > systems. > > For information on how to participate, please see the readMe file: > > http://pauillac.inria.fr/~harley/ecdl6/readMe.html > > For further details on what the project is about, including a > description for non-specialists of the methods used, consult > the following FAQ: > > http://pauillac.inria.fr/~harley/ecdl6/FAQ.html > > I looking forward to hearing from you, > Rob. >