[Gllug] Questions arising from the random discussions...

[Nix]

On 3 Aug 2010, Walter Stanish verbalised:

>>>>> It may be of interest to read Documentation/hw_random.txt in /usr/src/linux
>>>>
>>>> That's about Linux's support for *hardware* random number generators (that
>>>> is to say, those that need direct kernel support).
>>>
>>> Yes, they're in most modern PCs
>>
>> No they aren't. Some VIAs have them. Intel put them in some machines
>> briefly and then stopped. I think that's it.
>
> Ahh, my bad.  I guess I just assumed that, after seeing them pop up some
> years ago that PRNGs were - as per most hardware - to be accrued as
> mainstream and thus become rolled in to the motherboards or CPUs and
> never go away...
>
> Makes you wonder why they weren't?

Because most people have the same reaction as Jose Luis Martinez
earlier, that this is ultra niche, even though it isn't, so it was
dropped as a waste of silicon. (It's also really hard to keep random
noise sources on the CPU die good-quality: there's just too much regular
electrical noise around.)
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