[271] in Cypherpunks
RNG: from Zener diode?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Liam David Gray)
Sun May 9 09:09:59 1993
Date: Sun, 9 May 1993 00:24:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Liam David Gray <lg2g+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: tcmay@netcom.com
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
Tim,
I recall you or some other Cypherpunk mentioning that, by some means,
strong random numbers can be had by observing some property of Zener
diodes.
Could you explain this? ...If feasible, I imagine exploiting this
phenomenon to make a "random number dongle," an inline device for a PC's
serial or parallel port, which could be polled by savvy software. If
possible, and if someone hasn't done it already, I'd like to work up a
simple recipe (schematic, list of ingredients, and sample code) for
this--and get it put into our "crypto-anarchists' cookbook"--i.e., on
soda.berkeley.edu. Perhaps a future version of PGP could take advantage
of such a random noise dongle, selectable by command-line switch.
This is pure speculation at this point. Am I completely off-base? In
any case, I'd love to hear more about it.
Liam
---
PGP public key available by arrangement -- The cat is out of the bag.
Too much of a dreamer not to be practical -- Go have your own "valiant defeat."
Liam David Gray <lg2g+@andrew.cmu.edu>
