Preliminary C#.NET project to generate the numbers of pi using the BBP formula which is grid computing friendly.
BBP Pi Calculator
Updated in 2021:
- Extended to include digit generator, tests simplified and expanded.
- Dotnet 6
- currently VS2022/Rider EAP required.
- 'miner' branch has further additions with a FasterKV based miner, including a Pi byte buffer and a worker/miner for filling the Pi FasterKV
2021.10.02 Jessica Mulein; jessicamulein.com, github.com/JessicaMulein
Originally by: 2014.12.14 Payson Welch; paysonwelch.com, freeideas.org, github.com/paysonwelch paysonwelch@gmail.com
This application is a proof of concept to demonstrate the capability of the Bailey–Borwein–Plouffe formula which can be used to solve for [n]th binary digit in base16 of pi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey%E2%80%93Borwein%E2%80%93Plouffe_formula
Originally I was considering using the BBP formula to create a new Proof of Work (POW) system for crypto currencies. With the advent of Proof of Stake however and other anonymizing features of currencies the BBP-Pi POW system would not be enough in itself to create a highly successful crypto currency.
A BBP-Pi POW currency would be more of a novelty of interest to reserachers mostly. There is also PrimeCoin which uses a POW system for hunting chains of prime numbers. So although this is an interesting idea it needs more thought before simply creating a POW based on BBP.
This applicaiton has been structured in such a way that it could easily be modified for grid computing. This application currently will not focus on grid payload distribution, but will focus on breaking work items into small specific units which can be easily inserted into a grid pipeline in the future. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin
The BBP formula was accidentally discovered in 1995 but it changed the landscape of our understanding of how to calculate certain numbers such as Pi and e. It uses a series of summations to calculate a hexidecimal stream of the floating point portion of Pi.
This applicaiton is not compatible with large numbers, so be cautious about overflow.
The GMP library has interesting number generators which could also be introduced for POW systems. https://gmplib.org/pi-with-gmp.html
References: BBP Algorith for Pi, The (Whitepaper) http://crd-legacy.lbl.gov/~dhbailey/dhbpapers/bbp-alg.pdf Pi in hexidecimal: http://calccrypto.wikidot.com/math:pi-hex
Parallelization, Test system: 2x Xeon E5520 CPUs, 24GB RAM
- Un-Parallelized runtime for 1000 slices (10000 digits) is 11.5 seconds.
- Parallelized runtime, 1.25 seconds for 1000 slices
Closing thought - The BBP algorithm is a prime candidate for conversion to C++ in order to use Accelerated Massive Parallelism (AMP) to facilitate GPU calculation.