Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ross, D

Titel

Pseudo-random number generators for a calculator

Ist Teil von

• Communications of the ACM, 1995-01, Vol.38 (1), p.122-124

Ort / Verlag

New York: ACM

Erscheinungsjahr

1995

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

ACM Digital Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The owner's manual for the Hewlett-Packard HP-42S calculator describes function RAN as returning a number that is part of a uniformly distributed pseudo-random number sequence. According to the manual, this number passes the spectral test. The calculator's SEED function initializes the next operation of RAN. Each random number generated becomes the seed for the next random number, and when the seed is equal to zero, the calculator generates a seed internally. The manual provides no analytical or algorithmic details of either RAN or SEED. A number of tests were performed to evaluate the RAN function. The frequency, serial, and serial correlation tests validated the HP-42S pseudo-random number generator. However, the gap and run tests gave contrary results, suggesting the generator is invalid. Details are presented.