Software-generated random numbers are likely to be of poor quality. There just isn't that much true randomness visible to computers. Several ways to build good hardware random number generators are known. But before hardware random number generators can be incorporated into common desktop computers, someone will have to put them into a small fraction of a chip. Currently, random number generators are chips or larger circuits. Nobody will pay to put these on a motherboard. But if a random number generating circuit occupied 1/1000th of a CPU chip or "multi-function I/O" chip, cost would not be a reason to leave it out. You probably can't build a hardware random number generator out of existing "gate array" gates or "standard cell" cells, because all the existing gates and cells are designed to behave completely predictably! It will take designing a new circuit structure. Do we know any solid state physics / circuit design experts who think this might be a fun thing to do? I bet you could get a paper out of it. And probably improve the world a few years later, when companies used your paper to close another hole in their computer security. John PS: It's possible that NSA collusion with chip-makers could produce bad pseudo-random-number generators in popular chips, giving NSA a back-door into any algorithm that used them. This would be harder to detect than poor software random number generators, since it requires prying the lid off the chip, getting out your microscope, and reverse-engineering the circuit, instead of just disassembling the software. In this sense, NSA ought to be *encouraging* Intel and IBM and Motorola to put "generate random bits" instructions into their instruction sets...