[Cryptography] Photon beam splitters for "true" random number generation ?

[Bill Cox]

On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 12:56 PM, Stephen Wood <smwood4 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I hope this isn't too off-topic, but for somebody looking for open-source,
> hardware TRNG for real-world server use, the selection is abysmally low. In
> fact I can only find two: a single person in San Francisco making them by
> hand <https://www.tindie.com/products/WaywardGeek/infinite-noise/>, and
> the onerng <http://onerng.info/>, which became available just *this
> month!*
>
> I don't know how practical Mr. Baker's initial design would be to
> implement on silicon, but my hope is the spitballing will eventually
> trickle down into additional open-source TRNG designs.
>

I'm the dork making them by hand in SF :)  It's just a fun hobby.  I'll
make 10 more soon...

As you found, OneRNG is open-source and open-hardware.  I strongly
recommend it for nearly all applications.  Coupled with a solid CPRNG, it
generates all the cryptographically secure key data you will ever need.

Being fully open-source is extremely important for a TRNG.  NeuG
<http://www.gniibe.org/memo/development/gnuk/rng/neug.html> should get an
honorable mention here.  However, the engineering and theory behind OneRNG
is stronger, and OneRNG includes the schematics and board layout, and even
a bill-of-materials if I remember correctly.

A more popular alternative is TrueRNG
<http://www.amazon.com/TrueRNG-Hardware-Random-Number-Generator/dp/B00T0XKAQM>,
but even though the creator promised to make his code and schematics open
source, he never delivered.  We simply don't know if it is any good.

Back to this thread: The beam splitter is cool :)  An open-hardware version
would be a welcome development, IMO.

Bill
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/attachments/20151216/ba6209d3/attachment.html>