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49.2 Notes on the algorithms

Pseudo–random number generators (PRNGs) are algorithms that can automatically create long sequences of numbers (for example, millions of numbers) with good random properties; eventually the sequence repeats itself or memory usage grows without bound10.

We examine some notes on PRNGs with the purpose of gaining basic understanding of the code, and to reverese engineer the basic steps of source code available on the Internet. This section is meant to help people new to the PRNG algorithms.


Footnotes

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Wikipedia contributors, “Random number generation,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_number_generator (accessed June 28, 2009).