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Date:      Sun, 23 Jul 2000 12:30:41 +0200
From:      Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>
To:        Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>
Cc:        Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.org>, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk>, current@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: randomdev entropy gathering is really weak 
Message-ID:  <200007231030.MAA00534@grimreaper.grondar.za>
In-Reply-To: <200007231016.MAA00486@grimreaper.grondar.za> ; from Mark Murray <mark@grondar.za>  "Sun, 23 Jul 2000 12:16:08 %2B0200."
References:  <200007231016.MAA00486@grimreaper.grondar.za> 

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> > > Obviously, if you need more randomness than a stock FreeBSD system
> > > can provide you with, you add hardware to give you more randomness.
> > 
> > This won't help if it's fed through Yarrow.
> 
> *BZZZZTTT!* Wrong. A good hardware RNG when fed at a high-enough rate
> through Yarrow can easily produce a continuous stream of what you need.
> (If we take that route, the current implementation may need to be tweaked
> a bit to stop reseeding after a period of unuse to avoid hammering the
> kernel too much; this needs careful thought).

Been thinking about this; the current implemnetation runs continuously
(thanks to taskqueue(9)). There is no reason that it couldn't be made
(somewhat) use-driven, so that it works harder at harvesting when being
used heavily. This may make it slower, but it would hurt the kernel a
bit less when not in use.

M
--
Mark Murray
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