A Hardware Efficient Random Number Generator for Nonuniform Distributions with Arbitrary Precision

Nonuniform random numbers are key for many technical applications, and designing efficient hardware implementations of non-uniform random number generators is a very active research field. However, most state-of-the-art architectures are either tailored to specific distributions or use up a lot of h...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Christian de Schryver, Daniel Schmidt, Norbert Wehn, Elke Korn, Henning Marxen, Anton Kostiuk, Ralf Korn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2012-01-01
Series:International Journal of Reconfigurable Computing
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/675130
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Summary:Nonuniform random numbers are key for many technical applications, and designing efficient hardware implementations of non-uniform random number generators is a very active research field. However, most state-of-the-art architectures are either tailored to specific distributions or use up a lot of hardware resources. At ReConFig 2010, we have presented a new design that saves up to 48% of area compared to state-of-the-art inversion-based implementation, usable for arbitrary distributions and precision. In this paper, we introduce a more flexible version together with a refined segmentation scheme that allows to further reduce the approximation error significantly. We provide a free software tool allowing users to implement their own distributions easily, and we have tested our random number generator thoroughly by statistic analysis and two application tests.
ISSN:1687-7195
1687-7209