Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer??

Toaster <toaster@dne3.net> writes:

kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

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 number [generators] are tiny
electronic components built into CPUs, HSMs, etc.

>
Strictly I should probably say “entropy source”, 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.

>
im no expert but can't you just amplify thermal (white) noise and just
sample it? it's completely random.

The physics isn’t my department but I think you’re on the right track.
The point is that what you get out of the hardware component needs some
additional processing before it’s usable in practice e.g. to generate
cryptographic keys of a chosen strength. (Scott is for some reason
repeating my remark about using a DRBG.)

--
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/