At Hackers 8.0, we had a discussion about the feasability of someone building a random data generator. I volunteered to look into this with the hopes of making a cheap and inexpensive device that has 2 DB-9 connectors (Serial through box) to be used to generate random serial data at a particular baud rate. Today, I called Newbridge Micro, they faxed me the data sheets, and gave me the number for a local rep in San Jose. (408) 258-3600, but I was appalled at the price. They wanted $52.50 each in 100 quantity. So it is clear that if I use this chip, which really is a hybred, I cannot charge $50 each. So we have to decide what to do, or how much more it will cost. After examining the data sheet, the chip is probed by a pulse, and a bit comes out with an equal probability of a "1" or a "0". Sorta like a coin toss. I think that the perifery cost of the other electronics, such as shift registers, or UART which would be necessary to clock the bits into an 8 bit register, etc, would cost about $6 - $8 in cost, then I will have to fab the boards. I have friend at Douglas Electronics who can give me a good price. It would cost $150 setup charge for the PC boards and $2 per board. 1 ea RBG1210 $52.50 1 ea PC board $2.00 various chips $8.00 Setup $1.50 (1/100th setup charge) Total parts $63.50 (100 quantity) Cost (4 X parts) $254.00 So, it is clear that the cost is rather high, and not everyone can afford this. But if you think that people will want to buy it at that price, I can go ahead and do it, but the cost to me would be about $250 to build just one of them, and I have someone who can loan me the money to make a prototype. This also includes design time and use of an electronics lab to test and get it running. I wouldn't be able to borrow $6350 to build 100 of them, and I think I can talk the rep into letting me purchase them in smaller quantity, so I can build them on demand. I'm just not so sure that people will want to pay $254 for one of these. So please lets discuss this, among our group to determine if this price is reasonable. Although, it IS possible to use a cesium noise source (Don't know the cost of that) and perhaps I can cut that price down by about a half or a third, but the design time would be much increased, and perhaps there would be twice as much electronics, and perhaps the posibility that the randomness won't be as good. John D.