PHYSICAL RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR AND PHYSICAL RANDOM NUMBER GENERATING DEVICE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the power consumption in a physical random number generator suitably used for various purposes such as encrypted communication, game and the like by reducing the area occupied thereby. SOLUTION: The physical random number generator comprises a second selector 15 and a third selector 16 provided in the front stage of each integrated circuit 5, and a polarity switching circuit 13 for switching the polarity of input with a first selector 22, the second selector 15 and the third selector 16 depending on the highest bit of an up/down counter 23. According to this, a delay 21 and the first selector 22 can be halved to reduce the number of gates. Further, addition of an FET is added to the latter stage of the resistor R of the integrated circuit 5 in parallel to a capacitor C results in improvement in quality of random numbers and speed-up of operation. Further, providing of a constant current circuit instead of the resistor R of the integrated circuit results in improvement in quality of random numbers. COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI