Les générateurs
de nombres aléatoires

Décembre 2022

Ce n'est pas très courant ni très connu, mais il existe des produits commerciaux dans le domaine des RNG.

En voici quelques-uns, histoire de montrer que je ne divague pas. Après, je ne suis pas certain que ça se vende très bien. Le marché doit être aléatoire...

La plupart du temps, il s'agit de produits ressemblant à une clé USB, certainement le plus simple et le moins couteux à réaliser. Après, est-ce sécuritaire, c'est une autre paire de manches, déjà que ça marche sur un PC, ça commence mal...

Il faut aussi convaincre les gens que c'est mieux que les solutions software qui vont chercher un peu d'aléa dans les méandres des disques durs et autres cartes WiFi.

Je vous ai recopié leur promotion à propos de la source d'entropie, à vous de juger. Désolé pour l'anglais, mais c'est assez inévitable.

Altus Metrum

Chaos Key 1.0

Araneus

Alea I & II

https://www.araneus.fi/products/alea2/en/

The Alea II uses a reverse biased semiconductor junction to generate wide-band Gaussian white noise.

Mercury (formerly Athena group)

Now Mercury, Athena product seems no more available.

Athena delivers silicon-proven semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores for cryptographic-grade random number generation (RNG). The TeraFire® Compact TRNG core (RNG-A100) complements Athena's comprehensive suite of cryptographic IP cores, providing the essential cryptographic-grade random numbers for use in key generation, key exchange, noise generation in communications applications, and more. Portable to any semiconductor process, the TeraFire RNG core is a fast and reliable way to incorporate cryptographic-grade random numbers into your ASIC or FPGA design.

RNG-A100

(now Mercury, no info:
http://www.athena-group.com/true-random-number-generators/)

The RNG-A100 is a minimum area solution that couples a non-deterministic entropy source (NRNG), containing multiple random oscillators, with a non-linear deterministic RNG (DRNG) to produce the highest quality RNG available today.

Bit Babbler

The BitBabbler White TRNG

http://bitbabbler.org/what.html

Shot noise, Johnson-Nyquist noise, flicker noise, RF noise.

The BitBabbler Black TRNG

http://bitbabbler.org/what.html

Only a single entropy gatherer (budget version).

ComScire

PQ4000KS, PQ128MS, CS128M

https://comscire.com/random-number-generator-selection-guide/

(old website) The quantum entropy source in the QNG Model PQ4000KS is shot noise due to sub-threshold leakage and gate tunneling leakage in MOS transistors. In addition, sources of chaotic entropy include a combination of thermal or Johnson noise, other types of transistor noise and switching noise. Twenty-four independent, high frequency oscillating signal sources, each producing a predetermined amount of quantum entropy and chaotic entropy, continuously operate at different frequencies between 200 and 400 MHz. Each oscillator is sampled at multiple taps to produce enhanced outputs and the enhanced outputs are further combined to produce noisy output signals. Seventy-five of these noisy signals are combined to produce a single sampled binary signal at 128 Mbps. Only FIPS certification.

ComScire® MicroStrong™ TRNG

https://comscire.com/secure-iot-rng/

The power of our design is based on a full theoretical understanding of entropy sources and the manipulation of randomness in practical circuitry. We are the only company that can provide a full mathematical proof (to be published) ... etc.

Crypta Labs

QRNG Module

(ID Quantique ?)

https://www.cryptalabs.com/

By combining a light source, a detector and a processor into a single Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip, in combination with our own software, we deliver military-grade encryption for devices which if compromised could have lethal consequences.

FDK

[2005] FPG100

no more available.

http://www.fdk.co.jp/

Thermal noise produced inside the semiconductor.

Flying Stone Technology

[2011] FST-01 NeuG

http://wiki.seeed.cc/FST-01/

True Random Number Generator based on ADC noise.

GGlabs

GRAND

https://gglabs.us/node/2104

USB TRNG (True Random Number Generator) based on the ST Microelectronics STM32.

Reste à espérer que le TRNG d'ST soit bon...

ID Quantique

https://www.idquantique.com/random-number-generation/products/

Quantis RNG (old version)

Beam splitter likely inside the cube.

Quantis RNG is PTG.3. Exploit elementary quantum optical processes as a source of true randomness. Photons (light particles) are sent, one by one, onto a semi-transparent mirror and detected. 4Mbps. AIS31 compliant.

Quantis RNG

https://www.idquantique.com/random-number-generation/products/quantis-qrng-chips/

Six models for different use cases.
One is inside the Samsung Galaxy Quantum 3 smartphone.
At its core, the QRNG chip contains a light-emitting diode (LED) and an image sensor. Due to quantum noise, the LED emits a random number of photons, which are captured and counted by the image sensor’s pixels, giving a series of raw random numbers...

Quantique ? Avec une LED ? Mouais, c'est beaucoup dire. C'est plutôt une distribution de Poisson. Inutile de déranger Schrödinger pour ça. Du bon vieux marketing pour vendre...

Infinite Noise

[2015] Infinite Noise

https://github.com/waywardgeek/infnoise

https://www.tindie.com/products/WaywardGeek/infinite-noise-true-random-number-generator/

Infinite Noise / Vendor: Wayward Geek via Tindie
Thermal noise, closely approximated as log2(K) per output bit, where K is a gain between 1 and 2 set by two resistors around an op-amp. A "health monitor" in the driver tracks this and verifies that the output entropy is within 3% of the expected entropy.

Intel

[2012] IVY bridge Broadwell processor

https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-digital-random-number-generator-drng-software-implementation-guide

In 2012, Cryptography Research, Inc. published the report "ANALYSIS OF INTEL'S IVY BRIDGE DIGITAL RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR". The entropy source (ES) at the heart of the Intel RNG is a self-oscillating digital circuit with feedback, shown in figure above. The ES is a dual differential jamb latch with feedback. It is a latch formed by two cross-coupled inverters (nodes A and B). The circuit is self-clocking (heart_clock), and designed such that when the clock is running, the circuit enters a metastable state. The circuit then resolves to one of two possible states, determined randomly by thermal noise in the system. The settling of the circuit is biased by the differential in the charges on the capacitors (A caps and B caps). The state to which the latch resolves is the random bit of output of the ES. The circuit is also designed with feedback to seek out its metastable region. Based on how the latch resolves, a fixed amount of charge is drained from one capacitor and added to the other. The goal is to have the latch oscillate around the metastable region, using the last output to determine the charge changes to the capacitors. At normal process, voltage and temperature (PVT) conditions, the ES runs at about 3 GHz.

IPCores

TRNG1

http://www.ipcores.com/True_Random_Generator_TRNG_IP_core.htm

Initial seed provided from internal entropy source. FIPS only.

OneRNG / Moonbase

OneRNG V2.0

was sold by Moonbase. http://moonbase.tictail.com/ (dead link).

Entropy is collected from an avalanche diode circuit and optionally an RF circuit, whitened and presented over a USB/Serial connection.

OneRNG V3.0

was sold by Moonbase. http://moonbase.tictail.com/ (dead link).

Semiconductor avalanche effect and atmospheric noise.

Quantum Numbers Corporation

[2016] QNG2

https://www.quantumnumberscorp.com/ : dead link.

QNG2 is the first Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) in the market the size of an integrated circuit (CHIP). Entropy source: ?? (likely tunnel effect)

Quantum Base

[2017] Q-RAND

https://quantumbase.com/electronic-solutions/q-rand/

At Quantum Base, we have invented and developed a true quantum random number generator (Q-RAND) using quantum tunnelling in a simple semiconductor structure, namely a resonant tunnelling diode (RTD).

l'article de Nature qui justifie ça.

Quantum eMotion

QRNG2

https://quantumemotion.com/technology/qrng2

Quantum eMotion underlying technology is based on the electron tunneling effect

Quintessence labs

qStream

https://www.quintessencelabs.com/products#qrng

PCI card. qStream is a quantum-powered module that uses quantum tunneling to sample the random movement of electrons across a diode, generating truly unpredictable strings of random numbers.

SK Telecom

[2016] QRNG

https://csrc.nist.gov/csrc/media/events/random-bit-generation-workshop-2016/documents/presentations/sessionv-1-jeong-woon-choi-presentation.pdf

Poisson distribution from a LED to a CMOS camera
[2017] The Quantum Random Number Generator will be mass produced by local chip maker Dongbu HiTeck.

Silex Insight (formerly Barco Silex)

BA450

https://www.silexinsight.com/products/security/random-generators

It is a digital source of entropy designed for compliance with the NIST-800-90B and AIS31. The IP Core successfully passed NIST-800-22, 90B and AIS31 test suites on the entropy source and it is compliant with the FIPS-140-2 validation.

Simtec Electronics

[2015] The Entropy Key

http://www.simtec.co.uk/ (product is no more existing)

http://www.entropykey.co.uk/ (dead link)

The Entropy Key uses P-N semiconductor junctions reverse biased with a high enough voltage to bring them near to, but not beyond, breakdown in order to generate noise. In other words, it has a pair of devices that are wired up in such a way that as a high potential is applied across them, where electrons do not normally flow in this direction and would be blocked, the high voltage compresses the semiconduction gap sufficiently that the occasional stray electron will quantum tunnel through the P-N junction. (This is sometimes referred to as avalanche noise.)

TectroLabs

TL200

https://tectrolabs.com/tl200/

(remplace le TL100)
The TL200 utilizes random noise generated from two independent and reliable sources based on reverse-biased Zener diodes.

AlphaRNG, SwiftRNG, MicroRNG...

https://tectrolabs.com/alpharng/

Même techno, mais avec un canal confidentiel. C'est mieux, mais bon, c'est de l'USB sur un PC.

TRNG9815

TRNG9815

http://www.trng98.se/

Random number generator intended for game servers.

UBLT

TrueRNGpro

http://ubld.it/products/truerngpro

Semiconductor avalanche effect (two parallel sources).

TrueRNG2

TrueRNG3

http://ubld.it/truerng_v3

Amélioration de la V2

Unik / Ensurity

Rambo RNG

http://uniksys.co.in/ (dead link)

https://www.ensurity.com/

"dual thermal noise generation" Xilinx Spartan3 FPGA
This product seems to have disappeared when Unik became Ensurity in 2017.

Non-professional

XR232USB

http://www.jtxp.org/tech/xr232usb_en.htm

This newly designed source of entropy utilizes nonlinearities and chaotic noise effects in a fast comparator IC.

QRBG121

http://qrbg.irb.hr/

Photon and beam-splitter, so quantum.

Et il y en a certainement bien d'autres...