View source for WEP-M+2 Project

{{Infobox software
| name                 = WEP-M+2 Project
| screenshot           = 
| caption              = 

| status               = Discontinued
| category             = Mathematics, Number theory, Integer factorization
| compute              = CPU
| dependencies         = 

| developer            = James Wanless
| author               = James Wanless
| sponsor              = Independent research
| released             = {{Start date and age|2006|05|12}}
| discontinued         = {{Start date and age|2024|01|18}}
| repository           = {{URL|https://github.com/bearnol/we}}

| programming language = C
| operating system     = Windows, Linux

| stats as of          = {{Start date and age|2023|11|26}}
| average performance  = 4,906 GigaFLOPs

| active users         = 108
| total users          = 1981
| active hosts         = 418
| total hosts          = 13,776

| rac                  = 
| credit per day       = 
| gpu performance      = 
| cpu performance      = 

| website              = {{URL|http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/}}
| license              = Open source
}}

'''''[https://web.archive.org/web/20240118183120/http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/ WEP-M+2 Project]''''' was a '''''[[wikipedia:Volunteer computing|volunteer distributed computing]]''''' project based on the [[wikipedia:Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing|BOINC]] middleware platform. 

The project focused on the [[wikipedia:Integer factorization|integer factorization]] of numbers of the form:

<math>2^p + 1</math>

where <math>p</math> is generally chosen from exponents associated with [[wikipedia:Mersenne prime|Mersenne primes]]. These values are commonly referred to by the project as ''Mersenneplustwo'' numbers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118183120/http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/ |title=WEP-M+2 Project |publisher=WEP-M+2 Project |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

The project distributed computational workloads to volunteers around the world using BOINC clients running on personal computers. Participants contributed idle CPU cycles to help search for non-trivial factors of very large integers.

== Overview ==

WEP-M+2 Project was administered by James Wanless and operated independently as a mathematics-oriented BOINC project. Its primary research interest was the factorization of large numbers related to Mersenne numbers.

Classical [[wikipedia:Mersenne number|Mersenne numbers]] are integers of the form:

<math>M_p = 2^p - 1</math>

where <math>p</math> is a positive integer. WEP-M+2 instead investigated numbers two greater than a Mersenne number:

<math>N = 2^p + 1</math>

The project attempted to discover integer divisors of these values using distributed computation. Because large exponential integers rapidly become extremely difficult to factor, volunteer computing provided a practical way to perform many parallel tests simultaneously.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ |title=BOINC |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

== Why WEP-M+2 Project? ==

According to statements published by the project administrator, the project focused on Mersenneplustwo integers because of their mathematical interest and their relationship to computational number theory and integer factorization.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118183120/http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/ |title=WEP-M+2 Project |publisher=WEP-M+2 Project |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

The administrator wrote:

{{quote|Mersenneplustwo because they’re the most interesting mathematically, especially when it comes to integer factorization.}}

== Goals ==

The main goal of WEP-M+2 Project was to identify factors of numbers of the form:

<math>2^p + 1</math>

for large values of <math>p</math>. Integer factorization is a major topic in computational mathematics and has applications in cryptography, primality testing, and computational number theory.

The project explored properties of these numbers and catalogued discovered factors. Some results produced by the project were later referenced in discussions related to [[wikipedia:Mersenne conjectures|Mersenne conjectures]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_conjectures |title=Mersenne conjectures |website=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

== Methods ==

WEP-M+2 Project used the BOINC infrastructure to distribute computational tasks known as ''work units'' to volunteers. Users downloaded the BOINC client software, attached to the project server, and processed mathematical calculations during otherwise idle computer time.

The underlying software and algorithms used by the project were released as open source software on GitHub.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/bearnol/we |title=bearnol/we |website=GitHub |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

The project administrator described his experience with volunteer computing as follows:

{{quote|BOINC is sooooo cool. I originally setup a server on spec because I felt I wanted the extra cycles, and when I saw the first wu’s come in over the network even from just my own little local farm, let alone later all the external volunteers, I was hooked for the next 17 years.|James Wanless}}

The project primarily relied on CPU computation rather than GPU acceleration.

[[File:BOINC logo.png|frameless|150x150px]]

== Scientific and mathematical context ==

The project operated within the field of computational number theory, particularly in the study of large exponential integers and factorization algorithms.

Numbers of the form:

<math>2^p + 1</math>

share similarities with other well-known integer families such as:

* [[wikipedia:Fermat number|Fermat numbers]]
* [[wikipedia:Mersenne prime|Mersenne primes]]
* [[wikipedia:Proth number|Proth numbers]]

Large-number factorization projects are computationally intensive because no known efficient classical algorithm exists for factoring arbitrary large integers. Distributed computing projects therefore provide a useful platform for conducting large-scale searches.

== Scientific results ==

The project published factorization discoveries and computational results through the administrator’s mathematics pages.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sites.google.com/site/bearnol/math/mersenneplustwo |title=Mersenneplustwo results |publisher=Google Sites |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

Some findings from WEP-M+2 Project were referenced externally in discussions concerning Mersenne-related mathematics.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_conjectures#cite_ref-3 |title=Mersenne conjectures |website=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

== Software and infrastructure ==

The project used the BOINC distributed computing framework developed at the [[wikipedia:University of California, Berkeley|University of California, Berkeley]]. BOINC enables scientific projects to harness volunteer computer resources through internet-connected clients.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/IntroductionToBOINC |title=Introduction to BOINC |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

Participants typically processed work units using the BOINC Manager application on desktop systems running Microsoft Windows or Linux.

== Project closure ==

By early 2024, the original WEP-M+2 Project website was only accessible through the [[wikipedia:Wayback Machine|Internet Archive Wayback Machine]], indicating that the project had likely ceased active operation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118183120/http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/ |title=WEP-M+2 Project archive |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=2026-05-23}}</ref>

The GitHub repository and archived pages remain available as historical references to the project and its research efforts.

== See also ==

* [[wikipedia:BOINC|BOINC]]
* [[wikipedia:Volunteer computing|Volunteer computing]]
* [[wikipedia:Integer factorization|Integer factorization]]
* [[wikipedia:Mersenne prime|Mersenne primes]]
* [[wikipedia:Distributed computing|Distributed computing]]
* [[wikipedia:Computational number theory|Computational number theory]]

== External links ==

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20240118183120/http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/ Official archived website]
* [https://github.com/bearnol/we Source code repository]
* [https://sites.google.com/site/bearnol/math/mersenneplustwo Mathematical results page]
* [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/ BOINC official website]

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

[[Category:BOINC projects]]
[[Category:Volunteer computing projects]]
[[Category:Distributed computing projects]]
[[Category:Number theory]]
[[Category:Integer factorization]]
[[Category:Mathematics software]]
[[Category:Free software projects]]