The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 03, 2009
Filed:
Jan. 11, 2005
Xiaojun Zhu, Milpitas, CA (US);
Reading G. Maley, San Francisco, CA (US);
Sompur M. Shivakumar, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Xiaojun Zhu, Milpitas, CA (US);
Reading G. Maley, San Francisco, CA (US);
Sompur M. Shivakumar, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and a method are provided for generating a random number, wherein the randomness of the random number is derived from thermal noise present across a pair of resistors. Each of the pair of resistors is defined to receive a respective input voltage and add a respective noise component to the input voltage. The output from each resistor in the pair of resistors is amplified to generate a noisy analog voltage that includes a representation of the random noise components added by the pair of resistors. The randomly varying noisy analog voltage is used to control a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The VCO generates a random digital signal based on the randomly varying noisy analog voltage. The random digital signal generated by the VCO is used to set a number of bits for defining a random number.