U> From: crunch@netcom.com (John Draper) U> I think I have a rough description of the hardware U> serial random generator I want to build. I want to call U> it the "Rander box" for lack of a better name. Using serial ports is probably not a good idea on PC clones. The IBM hardware design limits a machine to two ports comfortably, four practical maximum. Any machine that uses telecomm. (BBSs, etc) will have to consume the serial hardware, and will interfere with whatever you have to do. A good choice would be a parallel port, ie. a printer port. The IBM design allows 4 or more easily, and rarely do you see a pclone with more than two printers attached. If there isn't a spare port available, Fry's sells printer adapters for $19.95. Late-model printer adapters are 8 bit in and out, and are capable of Ethernet speeds. The parallel port uses standard busy/done and TTL levels. (For a "universal" serial version, you could internally have the 8 bit busy/done interface drive a UART. I bet simply fixing the data rate to 9600 baud would work.) U> When switched on, and a "cr" (or some other U> character) is sent to it, random bytes will stream out U> continiously. Another "cr" will stop the byte stream. U> At least this is ONE approach. If anyone can think of a U> better way, Pse speak up. I was about to say "prolly not necessary", but others make valid points... XON/XOFF, DTR, etc are all workable... DTR is compat w/serial and parallel too. On a pclone, producing bits continuously is easier. When not in use, the driver will dump bits onto the floor. Fancy (software) drivers could spool the bits into a nice big pile ("every bit is sacred..."). A simple driver could simply have say 10,000 bits, and continuously overwrite the oldest (wrap around the buffer...) --- ReadMail * Origin: tomj@fidosw.fidonet.org / World Power Systems (1:125/111) -- Tom Jennings - via FidoNet node 1:125/555 UUCP - ...!uunet!hoptoad!kumr!fidogate!111!Tom.Jennings INTERNET - Tom.Jennings@f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG