Re: [RFC] frandom - fast random generator module

[Andreas Dilger]

On Oct 16, 2003  14:31 -0500, Matt Mackall wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 12:18:25PM -0600, Andreas Dilger wrote:
> > 	while (nbytes >= sizeof(*data)) {
> > 		*(long *)buf = *data;
> > 		buf += sizeof(*data);
> > 		*data = *data * 1812433253L + 12345L; /* or whatever... */
> > 	}
> 
> I don't think a get_pseudorandom_bytes() is a horrible idea. But it's
> still worth the trouble to pick a more robust pseudorandom generator.
> The above won't satisfy common spectral requirements. I'd rather try
> to make /dev/urandom suffice first though.

Oh, by all means the above isn't sufficient, just an example.  We have
already had 2 arch-specific assembly PRNGs that are much better than
the above that can be used if there is no HW RNG.  My point was that it
would be nice to hide the details of which PRNG and all the CPU selection
and config detection from callers in the kernel.

Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/

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