[47590] in Cypherpunks
Re: Random Number Generators
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John A. Thomas)
Sat Jan 20 11:13:24 1996
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 1996 07:58:55 -0800 (PST)
From: "John A. Thomas" <jathomas@netcom.com>
To: "Timothy L. Nali" <tn0s+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <0kzHl6200bky0_dkQ0@andrew.cmu.edu>
You might find this article instructive: Herschell F. Murry, "A General
Approach for Generating Natural Random Numbers," IEEE Transactions on
Computers, December 1970, p. 1210.
A fairly recent patent uses your approach of two oscillators: No.
4,855,690 by Dias, assigned to Dallas Semiconductor Corp., "Integrated
Circuit Random Number Generator using sampled output of variable
frequency oscillator."
I'd suggest using Johnson noise; reverse-biased diodes generate noise
which is pink. Ive built devices using amplified Johnson noise, squared
up with a comparator, then averaged by a D flip-flop. The preliminary
results look pretty good.
Please post your results here -- and good luck.
John A. Thomas
jathomas@netcom.com
