🚀 go-pugleaf

         D. J. Berstein wrote:
:To factor RSA-129 with the general number field sieve (GNFS) requires a
:fifth-degree polynomial
:
:  f(x) = c_5 x^5 + c_4 x^4 + c_3 x^3 + c_2 x^2 + c_1 x + c_0,
:
:with integer coefficients c_i, and a positive integer m such that f(m)
:is a small positive integer multiple of RSA-129. Given any random choice
:of m you can easily expand RSA-129 in base m and find the coefficients
:c_i. However, for GNFS to finish in a reasonable time, the coefficients
:must be significantly smaller than random.

         How small do the coefficients have to be?  I have been led to
believe that the speed of the GNFS overall does not depend much on the
efficiency of the search for a good polynomial.  If this is the case it
would seem to be unwise to devote a lot of effort to finding a good poly-
nomial.  What is the point of this contest?
                           James B. Shearer