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Evaluation of splittable pseudo-random generators*

Part of: JFP Research Articles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 June 2015

HANS GEORG SCHAATHUN
HANS GEORG SCHAATHUN*
Affiliation:
Aalesund University College, Pb. 1517, N-6025 Ålesund, Norway (e-mail: georg@schaathun.net)
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Abstract

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Pseudo-random number generation is a fundamental problem in computer programming. In the case of sequential processing the problem is very well researched, but parallel processing raises new problems whereof far too little is currently understood. Splittable pseudo-random generators (S-PRNG) have been proposed to meet the challenges of parallelism. While applicable to any programming paradigm, they are designed to be particularly suitable for pure functional programming. In this paper, we review and evaluate known constructions of such generators, and we identify flaws in several large classes of generators, including Lehmer trees, the implementation in Haskell's standard library, leapfrog, and subsequencing (substreaming).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Functional Programming , Volume 25 , 2015 , e6
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Footnotes

*

The research was partially funded by Regionalt Forskingsfond Midt-Norge through the project Dynamic Resource Allocation with Maritime Application (DRAMA), grant no. ES504913.

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