Hugi Size Coding Competition

Volume 12: The Prime Number Finder Compo


Welcome!

After a recreational break we resume the competition series. Originally it had been planned to make the objective of the task to write the smallest possible analogue clocks, but we didn't manage to agree on the exact rules. We already had a beta rules set and a test suite, but then some people raised the opinion the rules set was too complex. Thereupon another poll was held and a tasks was chosen that did not afford an extensive rules set: prime numbers finding.

Basic Outline

Your program gets a decimal value, n, via the command line. It then has to find the n-th prime number and output it to stdout. As always, your program has to be written in x86 Assembler, and as the competition is about size optimizing, it has to be as small as possible to win.

Steps

  1. An entry reads a decimal number from its command line.
    • The number will be in the range of 0...1000000 decimal (hex 0...F4240).
    • The number will always be a positive integer or 0 (zero).
    • An empty commandline should be treated as 0 (zero).
    • You can assume that the commandline will be always either empty or contain a valid number.
    • You can assume that there are no extra zeroes in the commandline parameter (i.e. 0012 is not valid, only 12 is), and that there is only one whitespace between "entry.com" and the commandline parameter.
  2. Calculate this n-th prime number, where:
    • n = 0 => null: 0
    • n = 1 => 1st prime number: 2
    • n = 2 => 2nd prime number: 3
    • n = 3 => 3rd prime number: 5
    • n = 4 => 4th prime number: 7
    • n = 5 => 5th prime number: 11
    • n = 6 => 6th prime number: 13
    • n = 7 => 7th prime number: 17
    • ... etc ...
    • n = 1000000 => 1,000,000th prime number
  3. Print the n-th prime number as decimal to STDOUT.
    • The decimal number is padded to 10 digits with "0"s.
    • There is a normal newline character pair 13, 10 decimal (hex 0D 0A) after the decimal number.
    • An entry ONLY prints the n-th prime number, not all the primes before it, and/or those after it.
      • e.g. ENTRY 6 would give: 0000000013
      • e.g. ENTRY 0 would give: 0000000000
      • e.g. ENTRY would give: 0000000000
  4. Terminate cleanly.

Time Limit

The program must not take longer than 90 seconds on my computer (P3, 600 MHz).

Test Suite & Example Program

If you are reading this document online, click here to download an example program and a test suite. Both have been made by meph (Guido Hahn). I will use the same test suite in order to check your entries.

Keep checking the Hugi Size Coding Competition website for updates of the test suite.

Schedule

Aug 14, 2000 Compo starts.
Sep 30, 2000 11:59 pm CET Deadline for entry submission.
Oct 01, 2000 Entries and beta results will be released.
Start of Public Judgement.
Oct 07, 2000 11:59 pm CET End of Public Judgement.
Oct 08, 2000 Final results will be released.

Entry submission

Submit your entries only to Adok (hugi@netway.at). As a neutral organizer he will test your entry and update the preliminary results on the website.

You can send updates of your entry as often as you want.

Nobody but Adok will get to see any entry before the submission deadline. After the deadline all entries will be released at the website together with the 'beta' results. In this week, the 'public judgement' week, people can discuss and object to entries which seem not to match the rules in the Discussion Board.

Prizes

There are no materialistic prizes. The Hugi Size Coding Competitions are designed to appeal to the fun factor in all you creative coders out there. You will recieve the satisifaction, fame and honour of seeing your name up there in lights with some of the best code optimizers in the world.

The 30 best competitors will gets points and will be listed in the World League Table of Assembly. Reaching a good place in the compo and in the World League table of 80x86 size-coders is an excellent visting-card, a recommendation of your skills, your imagination and your enjoyment at pushing the boundaries of 80x86 coding.

Closing Words

Credits for this text: TAD (steps) and Adok (rest). Thanks to meph for the test suite and example program. Also thanks to all the other people who were involved in the discussion of this task.

We're looking forward to your participation!

Adok/Hugi (hugi@netway.at) & co.

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