NFS@Home

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NFS@Home
Project
StatusActive
CategoryMathematics
ComputeCPU
Development
DeveloperGreg Childers
AuthorGreg Childers
SponsorCalifornia State University, Fullerton
MaintainerNFS@Home team
Initial releaseJanuary 1, 2010  (16 years ago)
Repositoryhttps://github.com/childers
Software
Written inC, C++
Operating systemWindows, Linux, macOS
BOINC statistics
Stats as ofJanuary 23, 2026  (0 years ago)
Performance67.27 TFLOPS
Active users1,505
Total users21,193
Active hosts5,314
Total hosts352,727
Analytics
Credit/day12,342,466
CPU performance67.27 TFLOPS
Metadata
Websitehttps://escatter11.fullerton.edu/nfs/
LicenseGNU General Public License

NFS@Home is a volunteer distributed computing project based on the BOINC platform. The project performs the lattice sieving stage of the General Number Field Sieve (GNFS), currently the fastest known classical algorithm for factoring large integers.[1]

The project is operated by Dr. Greg Childers at California State University, Fullerton. NFS@Home allows volunteers around the world to contribute unused CPU time toward large-scale integer factorization efforts related to mathematical research and cryptography.[2]

Animation that visualizes the "Sieve of Eratosthenes" algorithm

History

NFS@Home originated from interest within the distributed computing community in applying volunteer computing resources to integer factorization problems. Prior work included development of the GGNFS and msieve software packages, which implemented variants of the Number Field Sieve algorithm.[3]

Before NFS@Home launched, a BOINC-based project called RSA Lattice Siever distributed sieving work related to the factorization of cryptographic signing keys used in Texas Instruments graphing calculators.[4]

Greg Childers contributed to the RSA Lattice Siever project and later used experience gained from that effort to launch NFS@Home in 2010.[5]

After RSA Lattice Siever ceased operations, some of its workloads and methodologies were merged into NFS@Home, expanding the project to support a broader range of factorization tasks.[6]

Research goals

NFS@Home focuses on the lattice sieving stage of the Number Field Sieve algorithm. This stage is computationally intensive and highly parallelizable, making it suitable for volunteer distributed computing.[7]

The project has contributed to:

  • Cunningham Project factorizations
  • Large composite integer factorizations
  • Aliquot sequence research
  • Mathematical and cryptographic investigations involving large semiprimes

Results generated by NFS@Home are often published to the Cunningham tables and related mathematical databases.[8]

Project applications

NFS@Home distributes several applications to volunteers, each targeting different sieve sizes and workloads.[9]

Application Purpose
lasieved 14e lattice sieving
lasievee 15e lattice sieving
lasieve5f 16e lattice sieving version 5
lasievee_small Smaller-number 15e sieving
lasievef_small Smaller-number 16e sieving

Scientific results

All project results are published through the NFS@Home website and associated mathematical databases.

Current project statistics

As of January 2026, the project reported:[10]

  • Over 21,000 registered users
  • More than 352,000 participating computers
  • Approximately 67 TFLOPS of computing performance
  • More than 12 million BOINC credits granted daily

Result databases

Project team and sponsorship

NFS@Home is developed and maintained by Dr. Greg Childers at California State University, Fullerton.[11]

The project has received infrastructure and computational support through programs funded by the National Science Foundation and ACCESS cooperative infrastructure initiatives.[12]

California State University, Fullerton. Humanities and Social Sciences May 2010 Commencement. This is a view of the front entrance of the Humanities and Social Sciences building.

Software

NFS@Home applications are based primarily on the following software packages:

The project primarily distributes CPU-based workloads and does not currently provide native GPU applications.[13]

Scientific papers and publications

Several papers and references related to distributed integer factorization and BOINC infrastructure are associated with NFS@Home and related research.

  • D. Anderson, "BOINC: A System for Public-Resource Computing and Storage", Fifth IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Grid Computing, 2004.
  • Greg Childers et al., papers and reports related to large integer factorization and lattice sieving.
  • BOINC publications database

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ NFS@Home project website
  2. ↑ NFS@Home server status
  3. ↑ GGNFS project
  4. ↑ RSA Lattice Siever archived website
  5. ↑ NFS@Home launch discussion on Mersenne Forum
  6. ↑ Mersenne Forum discussion
  7. ↑ NFS@Home overview
  8. ↑ Cunningham Project
  9. ↑ NFS@Home server status
  10. ↑ NFS@Home server status
  11. ↑ NFS@Home team
  12. ↑ ACCESS program
  13. ↑ NFS@Home applications
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