RE: AS/400 entropy source

[Buck Calabro <buck.calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tim McCarthy wrote:

>Does anyone know of any "approved" entropy source 
>on the AS/400? I've been digging up my own but I'm 
>sure there has to be a sanctioned method.

Assuming you're looking for a random number generator above and beyond the C
library, I have an RPG routine that was taken from the Oct 1988 issue of the
Communications of the ACM.  The article is about mathematically sound
pseudo-random number generation.  There's a C implementation of that in the
August 1991 issue of Tech Specialist.

This routine was used to select candidates for random drug screening; that's
why we needed an algorithm with known, sound mathematical principles behind
it.  It needed to stand up under legal scrutiny (and it has.)

Buck Calabro
Aptis; Albany, NY
"Nothing is so firmly believed as
 that which we least know" -- Michel Montaigne
Visit the Midrange archives at http://www.midrange.com
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