hi there!

recently i've been a lot into code optimization to speed up algorithms that are - mostly - basis of real time applications. so i'd like to introduce a competition, giving you a task and at about two weeks to solve it. i'll participate, too. the winner is determined by the competition rules (following). after that, the whole thing begins anew, either in a separate thread or in this one (depends on the percentage of spam, which i'd like you to omit ).

here we go...

• you are allowed to publish several entries, but please edit your post (as long as possible) to enter in your new idea. enumerate them.
  
• you are allowed to use a programming language of your desire, but keep in mind that i (or someone else) has to inspect your code and bring it to work properly, so don't use something totally unknown (i'd prefer c, c++, assembler, basic, java, even wdl if you want to try *g*)
  
• whole program or only the algorithm? if possible, the whole program.
  
• the winner is determined by the speed the algorithm has calculated the expected result, which has to be represented in memory in any form, that can - without great effort - be translated into a readable output.
  
• my computer is the reference machine, i've a pentium 4 with 1816 MHz, 512 mb DDR RAM and a GeForce 6 6600 GT GS - the rest is rather nonrelevant.
  
• measure or estimate execution time by yourself! and add your system specs to make it possible for us to sort out the entries. if your time is highly unlikely, it'll get controlled anyway, so don't cheat.

prices? fame and glory. programmers don't get much for their work - sadly. but you can use all that stuff here for your own projects and applications (if the author allows it).

so here is the first task: a classical one.
"calculate all prime numbers from 2 to 1 048 576."

good luck.

joey.