On 8/01/2012 12:25 AM, John VanSickle wrote:

>
> When I was a cryptographic maintenance technician in the USAF, I did
> work on one piece of gear which actually generated random bits, using
> the thermal noise from a component chosen for this task. The voltage
> bias on the components had to be within precise limits. I forget exactly
> what the random bits were used for. I recall that we were told in no
> uncertain terms not to fiddle with any of the circuitry involved; if it
> didn't work, we simply pulled the circuit card and sent it back to the
> depot. For the rest of the equipment, we troubleshot down to the
> component level. The equipment was phased out around 1990.
>
> Regards,
> John

Wow.  Somebody with real world knowledge.

Thanks for sharing.

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