From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Jan 22 1:54:45 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from storm.FreeBSD.org.uk (storm.FreeBSD.org.uk [194.242.139.170]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2948037B402 for ; Tue, 22 Jan 2002 01:54:42 -0800 (PST) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by storm.FreeBSD.org.uk (8.11.6/8.11.6) with UUCP id g0M9scj75709; Tue, 22 Jan 2002 09:54:38 GMT (envelope-from mark@grondar.za) Received: from grondar.za (mark@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by grimreaper.grondar.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g0M9sat57164; Tue, 22 Jan 2002 09:54:36 GMT (envelope-from mark@grondar.za) Message-Id: <200201220954.g0M9sat57164@grimreaper.grondar.org> To: NGH Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Hardware random number generator? References: <20020122044134.75050.qmail@web11905.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20020122044134.75050.qmail@web11905.mail.yahoo.com> ; from NGH "Mon, 21 Jan 2002 20:41:34 PST." Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 09:54:36 +0000 From: Mark Murray Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > --- Mark Murray wrote: > > If I was to make a hardware random number generator as a PCI card, > > who would be interested? How many would you be interested in? > > What price would you pay? (I'm thinking +- US$100 or less). > > A hardware random number generator would be cool, but how do you think > of implementing one? Picking up noise, or radio broadcasts, perhaps? Multiple methods. A zener diode can be made very noisy, a pair of transitors can be made to oscillate wierdly etc. Then the entropy needs to be processed in hardware to distill out random bits. That is also done in multiple ways, with different parts of the circuit independantly supplying parts of the 32-bit result. Provision for external noise (so the user can connect his own noise source) would also be there. M -- o Mark Murray \_ FreeBSD Services Limited O.\_ Warning: this .sig is umop ap!sdn To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message