aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/hw_random.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org>2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@ppc970.osdl.org>2005-04-16 18:20:36 -0400
commit1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 (patch)
tree0bba044c4ce775e45a88a51686b5d9f90697ea9d /Documentation/hw_random.txt
Linux-2.6.12-rc2v2.6.12-rc2
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history, even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about 3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good infrastructure for it. Let it rip!
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/hw_random.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/hw_random.txt69
1 files changed, 69 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/hw_random.txt b/Documentation/hw_random.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..bb58c36b5845
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/hw_random.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
1 Hardware driver for Intel/AMD/VIA Random Number Generators (RNG)
2 Copyright 2000,2001 Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com>
3 Copyright 2000,2001 Philipp Rumpf <prumpf@mandrakesoft.com>
4
5Introduction:
6
7 The hw_random device driver is software that makes use of a
8 special hardware feature on your CPU or motherboard,
9 a Random Number Generator (RNG).
10
11 In order to make effective use of this device driver, you
12 should download the support software as well. Download the
13 latest version of the "rng-tools" package from the
14 hw_random driver's official Web site:
15
16 http://sourceforge.net/projects/gkernel/
17
18About the Intel RNG hardware, from the firmware hub datasheet:
19
20 The Firmware Hub integrates a Random Number Generator (RNG)
21 using thermal noise generated from inherently random quantum
22 mechanical properties of silicon. When not generating new random
23 bits the RNG circuitry will enter a low power state. Intel will
24 provide a binary software driver to give third party software
25 access to our RNG for use as a security feature. At this time,
26 the RNG is only to be used with a system in an OS-present state.
27
28Theory of operation:
29
30 Character driver. Using the standard open()
31 and read() system calls, you can read random data from
32 the hardware RNG device. This data is NOT CHECKED by any
33 fitness tests, and could potentially be bogus (if the
34 hardware is faulty or has been tampered with). Data is only
35 output if the hardware "has-data" flag is set, but nevertheless
36 a security-conscious person would run fitness tests on the
37 data before assuming it is truly random.
38
39 /dev/hwrandom is char device major 10, minor 183.
40
41Driver notes:
42
43 * FIXME: support poll(2)
44
45 NOTE: request_mem_region was removed, for two reasons:
46 1) Only one RNG is supported by this driver, 2) The location
47 used by the RNG is a fixed location in MMIO-addressable memory,
48 3) users with properly working BIOS e820 handling will always
49 have the region in which the RNG is located reserved, so
50 request_mem_region calls always fail for proper setups.
51 However, for people who use mem=XX, BIOS e820 information is
52 -not- in /proc/iomem, and request_mem_region(RNG_ADDR) can
53 succeed.
54
55Driver details:
56
57 Based on:
58 Intel 82802AB/82802AC Firmware Hub (FWH) Datasheet
59 May 1999 Order Number: 290658-002 R
60
61 Intel 82802 Firmware Hub: Random Number Generator
62 Programmer's Reference Manual
63 December 1999 Order Number: 298029-001 R
64
65 Intel 82802 Firmware HUB Random Number Generator Driver
66 Copyright (c) 2000 Matt Sottek <msottek@quiknet.com>
67
68 Special thanks to Matt Sottek. I did the "guts", he
69 did the "brains" and all the testing.