Out come the "this is dumb because .." messages in the redit responses.
I have experiences dozens of projects where the developer had the wrong view of the end use needs for a myriad of reasons (everything after the because). It doesn't matter why in this case just that they found their solution.
The TL;DR message should be make sure the real needs get serviced.
In the days when perl was the language of choice for the web I got a 97% reduction in code size. I was asked to join a late project to speed it up. (Yes I know that has low success rate).
The lead dev was a hard core c programmer and had no perl experience before this job. He handed me a 200 line uncommented function that he wrote and was not working. It was a pattern matcher. I replaced it with 6 lines of commented perl with regex that was very readable (for a regex).
Since he had no idiomatic understanding of perl he did not accept it and complained to management. We had to bring in the local perl demigod to arbitrate(at 21 was half my age at the time, but smart as a whip). Ruled in my favor and the lead was pissed.
I am the MapGuy(TM). I had paper maps of every destination and triptix from AAA. I would fly with a pocket Rand McNally Road Atlas and be able to identify where we were from features on the ground. I still do it but I use a GPS. I don't trust them so I still check maps before I use a GPS in unfamiliar areas. I find badly optimized routes 5% of the time and outright mistakes 1%.
I was the one who got people unlost when they got them selves lost because they did not listen to the map geek.
I hope this gives me at least 30 more years before mental decline starts. That will get me to my late 90's.
They are all in the 3 to 6 decimal digit range...so 10 to 20 bits wide.
The posted article says it factored a 22 bit integer. Progress!!
I don't know when they will get to 4096 bit integers but this and past events will mark the history of attempts. Will there be hockey stick graph increases over time or will it be linear or asymptomatic . Time will tell.
Nice that they did it but Headline writers should be flogged for overblown writing.
I listen to the Embedded podcast. https://embedded.fm/
They on occasion talk about the process to make boards that are ready
for manufacturing.
They talk about the difference between boards that will
me be made in small quantities (less than 100) or large (10,00k to 1 Million)
The rule of thumb they used was BOM (Bill of Materials) should be 30% of the
retail cost of the board. Large scale manufacturing can lower the the percentage.
Remember the cost of firmware (hours paid to develop) is not included in the BOM
cost but is divided up over the number of units made using that firmware revision.
There are also design to manufacturing issues to take into account. Designing to make the manufacturing easier is above and beyond just making a functional board that works but is hard and expensive to manufacture.
The TL;DR message should be make sure the real needs get serviced.