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Date:      Sat, 5 Oct 1996 21:52:27 +0400 (MSD)
From:      =?KOI8-R?Q?=E1=CE=C4=D2=C5=CA_=FE=C5=D2=CE=CF=D7?= (Andrey A. Chernov) <ache@nagual.ru>
To:        bde@zeta.org.au (Bruce Evans)
Cc:        joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, current@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: I plan to change random() for -current (was Re: rand() and random())
Message-ID:  <199610051752.VAA03726@nagual.ru>
In-Reply-To: <199610051115.VAA21012@godzilla.zeta.org.au> from "Bruce Evans" at "Oct 5, 96 09:15:05 pm"

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> >IMHO we need to change our random() as suggested.
> 
> How do you know that the suggested method is better?

Well, I am not research random generators area personally,
but given formulae is 1) well-known as good one, 2) give
good results with proposed test, 3) already used in libkern/random.c,
4) better than previous one in all parameters.

> ISO C example:    next = 1103515245 * next         + 12345;
>                   return (unsigned int)(next / 65536) % 32768;
> 
> I.e., it returns bits 16-31 of the current state (right shifted 16).  This
> is said to be better.  Folklore says that someone broke rand() by not
> discarding the low bits when ints became 32 bits.

It is not good enough to live due to unrandom nature of original formulae.
I.e. _all_ bits are unrandom, and lower ones are more unrandom.
This formulae not good enough even for 16bits.
At this moment I worry about random() only, lets consider rand() things
after it.

> >! 	  /*
> >! 	   * Implements the following, without overflowing 31 bits:
> >! 	   *
> >! 	   *     state[i] = (16807 * state[i - 1]) % 2147483647;
> >! 	   *
> >! 	   *     2^31-1 (prime) = 2147483647 = 127773*16807+2836
> >! 	   */
> >! 	  long int hi = state[i-1] / 127773;
> >! 	  long int lo = state[i-1] % 127773;
> >! 	  long int test = 16807*lo - 2836*hi;
> >! 	  state[i] = test + (test<0 ? 2147483647 : 0);
> 
> This method is also found in the BSD4.4Lite libkern/rand.c.  I guess it
> can be trusted (as much as the BSD rand.c :-).

So we can safely import it even not from this posting (which can be
GNU diseased) but from our own libkern/rand.c

Here proposed patch, initial table regenerated to conform default
seed value (1):

*** random.c.orig	Sat Oct  5 20:41:57 1996
--- random.c	Sat Oct  5 21:45:01 1996
***************
*** 122,128 ****
  /*
   * Initially, everything is set up as if from:
   *
!  *	initstate(1, &randtbl, 128);
   *
   * Note that this initialization takes advantage of the fact that srandom()
   * advances the front and rear pointers 10*rand_deg times, and hence the
--- 122,128 ----
  /*
   * Initially, everything is set up as if from:
   *
!  *      initstate(1, randtbl, 128);
   *
   * Note that this initialization takes advantage of the fact that srandom()
   * advances the front and rear pointers 10*rand_deg times, and hence the
***************
*** 135,146 ****
  
  static long randtbl[DEG_3 + 1] = {
  	TYPE_3,
! 	0x9a319039, 0x32d9c024, 0x9b663182, 0x5da1f342, 0xde3b81e0, 0xdf0a6fb5,
! 	0xf103bc02, 0x48f340fb, 0x7449e56b, 0xbeb1dbb0, 0xab5c5918, 0x946554fd,
! 	0x8c2e680f, 0xeb3d799f, 0xb11ee0b7, 0x2d436b86, 0xda672e2a, 0x1588ca88,
! 	0xe369735d, 0x904f35f7, 0xd7158fd6, 0x6fa6f051, 0x616e6b96, 0xac94efdc,
! 	0x36413f93, 0xc622c298, 0xf5a42ab8, 0x8a88d77b, 0xf5ad9d0e, 0x8999220b,
! 	0x27fb47b9,
  };
  
  /*
--- 135,146 ----
  
  static long randtbl[DEG_3 + 1] = {
  	TYPE_3,
! 	0x991539b1, 0x16a5bce3, 0x6774a4cd, 0x3e01511e, 0x4e508aaa, 0x61048c05,
! 	0xf5500617, 0x846b7115, 0x6a19892c, 0x896a97af, 0xdb48f936, 0x14898454,
! 	0x37ffd106, 0xb58bff9c, 0x59e17104, 0xcf918a49, 0x09378c83, 0x52c7a471,
! 	0x8d293ea9, 0x1f4fc301, 0xc3db71be, 0x39b44e1c, 0xf8a44ef9, 0x4c8b80b1,
! 	0x19edc328, 0x87bf4bdd, 0xc9b240e5, 0xe9ee4b1b, 0x4382aee7, 0x535b6b41,
! 	0xf3bec5da
  };
  
  /*
***************
*** 192,206 ****
  srandom(x)
  	unsigned int x;
  {
! 	register int i, j;
  
  	if (rand_type == TYPE_0)
  		state[0] = x;
  	else {
- 		j = 1;
  		state[0] = x;
! 		for (i = 1; i < rand_deg; i++)
! 			state[i] = 1103515245 * state[i - 1] + 12345;
  		fptr = &state[rand_sep];
  		rptr = &state[0];
  		for (i = 0; i < 10 * rand_deg; i++)
--- 192,221 ----
  srandom(x)
  	unsigned int x;
  {
! 	register int i;
  
  	if (rand_type == TYPE_0)
  		state[0] = x;
  	else {
  		state[0] = x;
! 		for (i = 1; i < rand_deg; i++) {
! 	/*
! 	 * Compute state[i] = (7^5 * state[i - 1]) mod (2^31 - 1)
! 	 * wihout overflowing 31 bits:
! 	 *              (2^31 - 1) = 127773 * (7^5) + 2836
! 	 * From "Random number generators: good ones are hard to find",
! 	 * Park and Miller, Communications of the ACM, vol. 31, no. 10,
! 	 * October 1988, p. 1195.
! 	 */
! 			long hi, lo, t;
! 
! 			hi = state[i - 1] / 127773;
! 			lo = state[i - 1] % 127773;
! 			t = 16807 * lo - 2836 * hi;
! 			if (t <= 0)
! 				t += 0x7fffffff;
! 			state[i] = t;
! 		}
  		fptr = &state[rand_sep];
  		rptr = &state[0];
  		for (i = 0; i < 10 * rand_deg; i++)
***************
*** 348,356 ****
  {
  	long i;
  
! 	if (rand_type == TYPE_0)
! 		i = state[0] = (state[0] * 1103515245 + 12345) & 0x7fffffff;
! 	else {
  		*fptr += *rptr;
  		i = (*fptr >> 1) & 0x7fffffff;	/* chucking least random bit */
  		if (++fptr >= end_ptr) {
--- 363,386 ----
  {
  	long i;
  
! 	if (rand_type == TYPE_0) {
! 	/*
! 	 * Compute i = (7^5 * state[0]) mod (2^31 - 1)
! 	 * wihout overflowing 31 bits:
! 	 *              (2^31 - 1) = 127773 * (7^5) + 2836
! 	 * From "Random number generators: good ones are hard to find",
! 	 * Park and Miller, Communications of the ACM, vol. 31, no. 10,
! 	 * October 1988, p. 1195.
! 	 */
! 		long hi, lo;
! 
! 		hi = state[0] / 127773;
! 		lo = state[0] % 127773;
! 		i = 16807 * lo - 2836 * hi;
! 		if (i <= 0)
! 			i += 0x7fffffff;
! 		state[0] = i;
! 	} else {
  		*fptr += *rptr;
  		i = (*fptr >> 1) & 0x7fffffff;	/* chucking least random bit */
  		if (++fptr >= end_ptr) {


-- 
Andrey A. Chernov
<ache@nagual.ru>
http://www.nagual.ru/~ache/



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