From: kludge@panix.com   
      
   Richard Kettlewell   wrote:   
   >Richard Kettlewell  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."   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)