True Random Number Generator Using GPUs and Histogram Equalization Techniques

Random numbers are used in a wide variety of applications from simulation and encryption to gambling and clinical trials. A good quality random number generator is an asset for applications like encryption, randomized designs and network and information security. Various mathematical models have been developed in the past to improve the quality of random numbers. It can be construed that in general to obtain random numbers of excellent quality, a complex mathematical model has to be used which can be a performance bottleneck. In this work, we propose a novel technique to implement a True Random Number Generator (TRNG) using sources of uncertainty found within Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) together with histogram equalization to obtain maximum entropy. We evaluate the random numbers generated by our approach using four tests. First, we measure the correlation values between two sequences of random numbers, second, we measure the entropy values, third, we use watermarking, an application used in network security and finally we use Monte Carlo analysis for pi-value calculation. Based on these quality measurements, our method has achieved better results than popular random number generators compared in this work. Furthermore, this approach is a massively scalable solution ideal for high performance computing implementations.