On Fri, 22 Aug 2003, John S. Denker wrote:
>The mentioned technology is what I classify as a >_stretched_ random symbol generator, because it >outputs an entropy density greater than zero but >less than 100%. The accepted (?) terminology among the relatively few writers who are distinguishing between all three classes of RNG's is that - "True random number generators" require entropy density of 100%, - "Semirandom number generators require entropy densities between 99% and 1%, - "Pseudorandom number generators" do not consume entropy at all and eventually (disregarding such intervening events as the heat death of the universe) cycle. In practice however, many writers aren't distinguishing between semirandom and pseudorandom generators at this time, despite the fact that their properties are drastically different (semirandom generators for example are unsuitable for applications such as stream ciphers). When they're not distinguished, folk tend to use "pseudorandom" as nomenclature for both. Bear --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]