Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer??

Richard Kettlewell  <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> writes:

Exactly! All the stuff about lava lamps, helium motion inside hard
disks, etc is just gimmicks. Real random numbers are tiny electronic

                                                ^generators

components built into CPUs, HSMs, etc.

>
Strictly I should probably say “entropy sources”, since there’s
generally a DRBG between the electronics and the application, as well.

The problem with those genuine random number generators is that they are
usually comparatively slow.  They take milliseconds to spit out a number,
sometimes tens or even hundreds of them.  So we use the genuine RNG to
seed a PNG in situations where we don't need complete randomness but need
pretty good randomness and need a lot of it fast.  Knuth has a discussion
of this.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."