I have been trying to factor semiPrimes for years now. I have a simple algebraic equation that gives one factor knowing only N. The only problem I have to find the value of x where y equals 1. I thought this was a simple thing, but with 200 digit numbers finding where y equals 1 on the graph takes some computation. I believe the computation is much smaller than recursive division, but factoring it is the only way to be sure.

My question is how is Mathematica on computation? If I programmed the math algorithm in Mathematica will it be as efficient as a Xeon processor crunching numbers. I have tried computations in Mathematica before and it let me know it was processing but I had no information on the processes it was going through.

And what functions in Mathematica would be used to find y equals 1 on a graph that is f(x} equals x?

Seems like it should be easy. If I were doing the calculation by hand, I would choose test values and find the derivative or slope. But to find the x value with a 200 digit number there would be many close options for x. I know there are equations to solve this but I have never used them.

So I need to know if Mathematica can handle the computational problem of 200+ digits, and if I think my method is less computational will Trurl’s method will be less computational to work in Mathematica.