gmp-ecm 5.0

                             GMP-ECM 5.0

We are pleased to announce the release of GMP-ECM 5.0. It is available from:

      http://home.in.tum.de/~kruppa/ecm-5.0.tar.gz
      http://www.loria.fr/~zimmerma/free/ecm-5.0.tar.gz

This is a major release, after version 4c which was released more than
three years ago. The main changes with respect to version 4c are:

(a) functionality: the program now implements also the P-1 and P+1 methods,
    with a common step 2 (use option -pm1 to call P-1, -pp1 for P+1).
    Options -save/-resume enable one to save the state at the end of step 1,
    and to continue it afterwards, or on a different computer.
    It is now possible to specify a range B2min-B2max for step 2. This
    enables one to perform a huge step 2 (for a given step 1) using several
    computers: the first one checks B1-B2, the second one B2-B3, ...
    Version 5.0 is upward compatible with version 4c, except the parameter
    'sigma' is now an option: ecm4c b1 s b2 becomes ecm5 -sigma s b1 b2.
(b) implementation: the code is split into several files to make the code
    easier to maintain and compile. In particular interfacing with
    another program is much easier.
(c) efficiency: step 1 is slightly faster, thanks to a new modular
    multiplication layer. Step 2 is much faster, due to the use of
    improved polynomial arithmetic (now uses Toom-Cook 3 and Toom-Cook 4,
    instead of only Karatsuba in version 4c).

No binaries are distributed so far, since version 5.0 is very easy to
compile: it only requires to have the GNU MP library installed. Detailed
instructions how to install and optimize the use of gmp-ecm are to be found
in the INSTALL and README files.

Many thanks to Jay Berg, Paul Leyland, Joe Leherbauer and Torbjorn Granlund,
whose contribution was essential to improve this release.

Alexander Kruppa
Paul Zimmermann