No Subject
smb at research.att.com
smb at research.att.com
Sun Jun 19 06:35:46 PDT 1994
There are a few things to watch out for. First, it's really easy
for subtle (or not so subtle) biases to be present in a noise source.
These can be due to component drift, external noise (i.e., power
supply coupling), etc. You want a design that isn't sensitive to
such things, if possible. Second -- and it's partly a corollary to
the first -- the designs I've seen for real RNGs have always included
a scrambler step, to mix up the bits, account for biases, etc.
The first such scrambler was, I think, described by von Neuman himself.
I have the citation in my office; I'll try to post it tomorrow.
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