It’s a field that need not be expensive or difficult to work in, as [Henk Mulder] shows us with his 4-bit analogue random number generator. One of the simplest circuits for generating random ...

Random generator: The digital circuits at the center of this electron micrograph image can emit a stream of random numbers at high speed. Such circuits could be integrated into future processors.

Unusually the XOR gate is made from discrete transistors, 2N3053s in bulky TO39 packages, and for a particularly old-fashioned look a vintage HP LED display shows the currently generated number.

True random numbers from a handful of gates Even RFID tags could get ‘true’ random number generators following work at the Queen’s University Belfast. Secure communication can require a ...