Hardware random number generator

There is an interesting project that is using the Americium-241 from a smoke detector to produce an entropy source based on radioactive decay.

https://hackaday.io/project/180445-qrng

They do this without having to disassemble the chamber that contains the Americium-241, limiting personal exposure.

I find this interesting because I live outside the United States. There are companies in the U.S. where you can buy mildly radioactive materials for use with Geiger counters to produce radioactive-decay entropy sources. But exporting radioactive material from the U.S. and into another country would be a challenge, if not an International Traffic in Arms Regulations violation. But everybody has smoke alarms.
 
blackbird9 said:
Radioactive decay is inherently truely random at the quantum process level, in the sense that is is impossible (within our current knowledge) to predict when a decay event will occur, and hence can be used to generate random numbers by means of some decay event detection and counting/timing hardware.
Click to expand...

Ya +1 on radioactive decay.
 
The aussie national univ site is interesting too. 'Quantum fluctuations of the vacuum' might well be just as truly random as radioactive decay, but my physics is too rusty to know (sadly). And the other one I found is 'random.org' which uses 'atmospheric noise', that comes from trinity college, Dublin. Both of those sound like (highly) reputable sources to me, at least worthy of investigation. They both provide tools that can pull the random numbers down over the internet.

It's a shame that John Walker's 'hotbits' has been retired, at least the version based on radioactive decay. Interestingly Walker says in his blog that 'hotbits' was used for cryptographic protection of autocad, he was one of the founders of that company, so it was used for a major commercial project that he was invested in; which means it had better work properly:) .
 
drhowarddrfine said:
I keep a couple of pounds of plutonium around just for that rainy day when I need it.
Click to expand...
I've got some uranium glass marbles and a couple of old thorium mantles (inside a sealed poly bag!) to check my old geiger counter is still working. 😂
The uranium glass is a very weak source, but the the thorium mantles produce a pretty convincing stream of clicks from the counter. I believe you can get thorium welding rods too that are similarly radioactive.
Another thing people use is red 'uranium ware' pottery, although I don't have any. That was things like plates and cups produced in the 1920's - 30s that used an orange-red glaze that contained a salt of uranium.
And of course old clocks, watches and compasses... although those are probably best avoided unless you want the risk of breathing in hot particles, the radium paint they used tends to disintegrate into powder. :oops:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top