From: "W. Kinney" <kinney@bogart.Colorado.EDU>
Date: Sun, 1 Oct 95 12:18:16 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Simple Hardware RNG Idea
In-Reply-To: <199510011820.OAA27233@frankenstein.piermont.com>
Message-ID: <199510011918.NAA22758@bogart.Colorado.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Perry writes, regarding alpha decay counts for random numbers:

> And, as I noted, there are RS232 interfaceable radiation detectors you
> can buy off the shelf -- no hardware hacking needed.

As far as a radiation source goes, the Americium 241 source from a cheap
smoke detector is just dandy. A while ago, I took one into the lab and
put it on a scintillating counter and got alpha hits at roughly 
half-microsecond intervals. It was a while ago, so I forget how this compared
to the rating in Curies on the package. But that would be fine for a
low-to-moderate bandwidth RNG.

                                    -- Will