From: Tom Libert <libert@citi.umich.edu>
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 93 08:19:07 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: randomness
Message-ID: <9301301619.AA09879@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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For a cheap truly random number generator, bias a diode
near the switch voltage (around .7V for silicon, if my
hazy memory serves.)  Take the result through an A/D
converter.  Should be Gaussian (or Poisson, I forget);
you could generate a good approximation to a uniform
distribution by inverting the source function (see
e.g. Knuth, "Seminumerical Algorithms" for an algorithm
for producing Gaussian variates from a pair of numbers
drawn from a uniform distribution.)