[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: Is Knuth's _AoCP_ still the authority on PRNG?
check out
"On the Efficient Generation of Cryptographic Confusion and Diffusion Sequences"
I may have gotten the title less than perfect. AltaVista will find it for you if you try.
Excellent piece.
----------
From: [email protected][SMTP:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 1996 7:54 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Is Knuth's _AoCP_ still the authority on PRNG?
Bryce writes:
>I'm reading Knuth chapter 3 on "random numbers". Have there
>been any major advances since the publication of the second
>edition of _The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2_ in 1981?
A much-referenced article:
Marsaglia, G. (1985). "A current view of random number generation".
In L. Billard (ed.), _Computer Science and Statistics: The Interface_.
A more recent survey, which I haven't read:
L'Ecuyer, P. (1990). "Random numbers for simulation". CACM 87,
no. 10, 85-97.
I read the resulting _NYT_ blurb, but not the paper:
Ferrenberg et al. (1992). "Monte Carlo simulations: Hidden errors from
`good' random number generators". Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 3382-4.
This is from the "simulation" angle, which is where Knuth is coming
from. For crypto you may be interested in the complexity-theoretic
approach (things like Blum-Blum-Shub), which is a whole different
field.
>Are any of the ideas advocated in chapter 3 now considered
>inadvisable?
I think the Marsaglia paper sank Knuth's recommended generator.
"Sank" is a relative term, of course.
--
Eli Brandt
[email protected]