-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have been asked by several cypherpunks what the CALNET/NEWBRIDGE RNG-810 is. It is a board you can place in a 8 or 16 bit slot of an 80x86 computer. Each time you do an inb instruction for the board's port address you get a random byte. I have one in my computer, and it works. I got mine from CALNET electronics INC. I paid $300 for it several years back. However I have been informed that CALNET no longer sells them and they must be obtained from NEWBRIDGE MICROSYSTEMS. See quoted message:
From: bretth@Newbridge.COM (Brett Howard) To: Paul.Elliott@hrnowl.lonestar.org Subject: Calnet RNG-810
Paul,
The RNG-810 is now licensed to Newbridge Microsystems. I have done some work with a 1-bit hybrid version of the technology (RBG-1210) and I do know a *little* bit about it. If you have questions, you should probably write to Newbridge (address at bottom) or you can email me and I'll do my best!
Take care, Brett
Newbridge Microsystems 603 March Rd. Kanata, Ontario Canada K2K 2M5 Tel: 1-800-267-7231 613-592-0714 FAX: 613-592-1320
I have a catalog from Newbridge Microsystems, Document:90000.MD300.02, Copyright 1992. Page 4-77 Says: "The NM 810 RNG Random Number Generator is an implementation of the latter approach, with eight RBG 1210s in parallel and a PC XT/AT bus interface. Random bytes are input to the computer through an I/O (Input/Output) port. Any data type (integer, floating point etc.) can then be easily constructed in software by using successive random bytes and arranging them according to the desired internal data format." I do not know if Newbridge still has RNG-810s to sell. Perhaps someone will call the 800 number above and find out. One restriction that I received in the docs with my CALNET RNG-810 is that if you attempt to read the device too fast (less the 40u sec between reads), the succesive bytes are not randomly independent. This is a problem for my IO driver as you do not want to do a spin wait on a real operating system like OS/2 and timer interrupts only occur 18.2 times per second. This causes my driver to run _MUCH_ slower than the hardware would require. I believe that the simple interface used by the RNG-810 is natural enough that it is likely to be used by others who create random number generators. And so my driver may be useful with other devices. But I have received mail recently from someone that makes a RNG that you attach to you serial port and runs at 9600 baud. You could probably use your standard serial port driver with such a device. - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Paul Elliott Telephone: 1-713-781-4543 Paul.Elliott@hrnowl.lonestar.org Address: 3987 South Gessner #224 Houston Texas 77063 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLVtrJ/BUQYbUhJh5AQH6UQP/TXJ5X14vUKPf1J8To5AtwQchPrgabUBT 03lN0+XbsDE6JEgJm7SDN1e3B5EqNEZGi3RMh63HMN7oYf1f7UUMGVoZJdqFNmBM e09s37VcGsZZaZZnlXb5ogQwnjeNGkRSoldWqMcwYQWSBZJskpohHvqrhoge7MQ4 Ka9jDhGCNhg= =ULN8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----