Micro-LEDs boost random number generation
28 points
12 hours ago
| 3 comments
| discovery.kaust.edu.sa
| HN
p1necone
10 hours ago
[-]
My first question would be whether it's possible to influence the output via triggering power fluctuations on the motherboard - e.g. by running expensive code to cause the CPU/GPU to scale up.
reply
gus_massa
7 hours ago
[-]
Probably not. It's hard to guess, but they probably get a Poison Distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution in the detector, they may read only a few of the lower bits of the data, and then mix them in the entropy pool, with other sources. So the end result is quite unpredictable.

It's somehow similar to a random generator where you have 5 dices, roll them and then add to the entropy pool only if the total was even or odd. Changing the power is like forcing the system to use only 4 dices. It changes the probabilities a little, but not in a very controlable way, and with a good mixing in the entropy pool it's almost irrelevant.

reply
dmesg
41 minutes ago
[-]
I read the actual open access paper: https://opg.optica.org/oe/viewmedia.cfm?uri=oe-33-11-22154&s...

Note if you look at the paper, you notice a close but not entirely perfect normal distribution, but nothing you cannot fix with UDNs and Irwin-Hall. For reference how that is done you can read the bottom of this very useful RNG article: https://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760/RP2040/C...

My overall verdict on the tech in OP is that it is amazingly promising!

reply
ericdotlee
10 hours ago
[-]
I usually stick to lava lamps
reply
ashirviskas
10 hours ago
[-]
Lava lamps have been deprecated, Lava LEDs are the new standard
reply
cwmoore
9 hours ago
[-]
Fender amps here
reply
4ndrewl
2 hours ago
[-]
Only useful for random numbers up to 11 though.
reply
privatelypublic
10 hours ago
[-]
Anybody have input on why this isn't a "Paper Tiger"?
reply
thfuran
5 hours ago
[-]
Why would it be?
reply