Toshiba shows 2Mbps hardware RNG

[Dirk-Willem van Gulik]

On Feb 10, 2008, at 4:02 AM, Peter Gutmann wrote:

>>  The device generates random numbers at a data rate of 2.0 megabits
>>  a second, according to Toshiba in a paper presented at the
>>  International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) here.
>
> I've always wondered why RNG speed is such a big deal for anything  
> but a few
> highly specialised applications.  For security use you've got two  
> options:


Assuming that it is impossible to introduce a bias externally and the  
randomness can be specifically cryptographically qualified - and such  
can be cheaply explained to an auditor - I can see a fair bit of use  
to reduce the 'cost' you spend on convincing that same auditor that  
your poker, roulette, etc site is fair, that you are keying all your  
RSA/DH/whatever exchanges off the right randomness, etc.

I've had cases where a simple nonce (which was just required to be  
different each time, so a i++ would do, not even unpredictable) ended  
up being changed into some sha1() of some i++ ^ RNG -- as that was the  
quicker way to get something argued live. So beeing able to wave a  
magic wand over a large part of your infrastructure may be just the  
ticked.

Dw

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