Project: a standard cell random number generator

[John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>]

Software-generated random numbers are likely to be of poor quality.
There just isn't that much true randomness visible to computers.
Several ways to build good hardware random number generators are
known.  But before hardware random number generators can be
incorporated into common desktop computers, someone will have to put
them into a small fraction of a chip.

Currently, random number generators are chips or larger circuits.
Nobody will pay to put these on a motherboard.  But if a random number
generating circuit occupied 1/1000th of a CPU chip or "multi-function
I/O" chip, cost would not be a reason to leave it out.

You probably can't build a hardware random number generator out of
existing "gate array" gates or "standard cell" cells, because all the
existing gates and cells are designed to behave completely
predictably!  It will take designing a new circuit structure.

Do we know any solid state physics / circuit design experts who think
this might be a fun thing to do?  I bet you could get a paper out of
it.  And probably improve the world a few years later, when companies
used your paper to close another hole in their computer security.

	John

PS: It's possible that NSA collusion with chip-makers could produce
bad pseudo-random-number generators in popular chips, giving NSA a
back-door into any algorithm that used them.  This would be harder to
detect than poor software random number generators, since it requires
prying the lid off the chip, getting out your microscope, and
reverse-engineering the circuit, instead of just disassembling the
software.  In this sense, NSA ought to be *encouraging* Intel and
IBM and Motorola to put "generate random bits" instructions into
their instruction sets...