NHSE ReviewTM 1996 Volume Second Issue

Random Number Generators for Parallel Computers

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Shift Register Generators 

Shift register (or Tausworthe) generators [1, 2, 38, 21, 39] are generally used in a form where they can be considered as a special case of a lagged Fibonacci generator using XOR. XOR gives by far the worst randomness properties of any operation for an LFG [1, 2, 15], so these generators are not recommended.

Despite their serious drawbacks, shift register generators have been very popular in the past, mainly because they were comparatively fast. However on modern processors addition is not markedly slower than XOR, so there is little reason to use these generators.

Copyright © 1996

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Paul Coddington, paulc@npac.syr.edu