What is the CANNET/NEWBRIDGE RNG-810

["Paul Elliott" <paul.elliott@hrnowl.lonestar.org>]

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I have been asked by several cypherpunks what the CALNET/NEWBRIDGE
RNG-810 is. It is a board you can place in a 8 or 16 bit slot of an
80x86 computer. Each time you do an inb instruction for the board's port
address you get a random byte.

I have one in my computer, and it works. I got mine from CALNET
electronics INC. I paid $300 for it several years back. However I have
been informed that CALNET no longer sells them and they must be obtained
from NEWBRIDGE MICROSYSTEMS. See quoted message:

>From: bretth@Newbridge.COM (Brett Howard)
>To: Paul.Elliott@hrnowl.lonestar.org
>Subject: Calnet RNG-810
>
>
>Paul,
>
>The RNG-810 is now licensed to Newbridge Microsystems.  I have done some work
>        with a 1-bit hybrid version of the technology (RBG-1210) and I do
>        know a *little* bit about it.  If you have questions, you should
>        probably write to Newbridge (address at bottom) or you can email
>        me and I'll do my best!
>
>Take care,
>Brett
>
>Newbridge Microsystems
>603 March Rd.
>Kanata, Ontario
>Canada  K2K 2M5
>Tel: 1-800-267-7231
>       613-592-0714
>FAX:   613-592-1320

I have a catalog from Newbridge Microsystems, Document:90000.MD300.02,
Copyright 1992. Page 4-77 Says: "The NM 810 RNG Random Number Generator
is an implementation of the latter approach, with eight RBG 1210s in
parallel and a PC XT/AT bus interface. Random bytes are input to the
computer through an I/O  (Input/Output) port. Any data type (integer,
floating point etc.) can then be easily constructed in software by using
successive random bytes and arranging them according to the desired
internal data format."

I do not know if Newbridge still has RNG-810s to sell. Perhaps someone
will call the 800 number above and find out.

One restriction that I received in the docs with my CALNET RNG-810 is
that if you attempt to read the device too fast (less the 40u sec
between reads), the succesive bytes are not randomly independent. This
is a problem for my IO driver as you do not want to do a spin wait on a
real operating system like OS/2 and timer interrupts only occur 18.2
times per second. This causes my driver to run _MUCH_ slower than the
hardware would require.

I believe that the simple interface used by the RNG-810 is natural
enough that it is likely to be used by others who create random number
generators. And so my driver may be useful with other devices.

But I have received mail recently from someone that makes a RNG that you
attach to you serial port and runs at 9600 baud. You could probably use
your standard serial port driver with such a device.

- -- 
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Elliott                                  Telephone: 1-713-781-4543
Paul.Elliott@hrnowl.lonestar.org              Address:   3987 South Gessner #224
                                              Houston Texas 77063

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