1996-01-20 - Re: Random Number Generators

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From: “John A. Thomas” <jathomas@netcom.com>
To: “Timothy L. Nali” <tn0s+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Message Hash: 2b201e0e78ac834e8e17f2aa6b0dadf354fd97997e40c6860b2de55885ba4ebe
Message ID: <Pine.3.89.9601200739.A10562-0100000@netcom4>
Reply To: <0kzHl6200bky0_dkQ0@andrew.cmu.edu>
UTC Datetime: 1996-01-20 15:59:51 UTC
Raw Date: Sat, 20 Jan 96 07:59:51 PST

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From: "John A. Thomas" <jathomas@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 96 07:59:51 PST
To: "Timothy L. Nali" <tn0s+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Random Number Generators
In-Reply-To: <0kzHl6200bky0_dkQ0@andrew.cmu.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9601200739.A10562-0100000@netcom4>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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





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