From: invalid@invalid.invalid   
      
   Toaster  writes:   
   > kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:   
   >> Richard Kettlewell   wrote:   
   >>>Richard Kettlewell  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.)   
      
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