Tech News
← Home  ·  All topics

Rng

2 GoKawiil briefs on this topic

Independent Tester Reports AMD Processors Never Output Zero From RNG Instructions

A Brazilian electronics engineer and assembly programmer named Jessé says he has tested two AMD processors extensively and found that the chips' hardware random number generator, accessed via instructions like rdrand and rdseed, has not produced a single zero value in over nine days of continuous testing. He has reported the issue to AMD, which has escalated it internally, though no technical explanation has been provided yet. Jessé also updated his testing application to benchmark RNG speed and support processors lacking the rdseed instruction, noting large performance differences across CPU generations.

Reverse-engineering Factorio's quality RNG reveals it's fully deterministic

A player analyzed Factorio's Space-Age DLC quality system, which uses a pseudo-random number generator rather than true randomness to determine item and building quality upgrades. The write-up documents an in-game implementation that exploited this predictable RNG, though it notes the technique breaks under Factorio version 2.1 due to changes in how the RNG is invoked, while the underlying algorithm remains the same.