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Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 09:16:26 +0200
From: Georg Bauhaus <rm.dash-bauhaus@futureapps.de>
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Subject: Re: KISS4691, a potentially top-ranked RNG.
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On 5/23/11 8:53 AM, robin wrote:
> <nmm1@cam.ac.uk>  wrote in message news:iplmk8$2s6$1@gosset.csi.cam.ac.uk...

> | I accept that Marsaglia's generator is a valid case for using
> | fixed-width types, but that is likely to make it very inefficient
> | indeed on a system where they are not natural.
>
> I very much doubt that any new machine is going to offer less than 32 bit
> integer words ; for some years now the trend has been to machines of
> 64-bit integers.

Not sure about the kind and specifics of technical systems in which
number generation plays a part.

But in case it does matter in computers embedded in  other
systems: the number of <32bit microcontrollers exceeds
the number of >=32bit processors built into PCs and
mobile computers (including "cellphones").

According to Wikipedia, counting all CPUs sold, even the share
of 8bit µcontrollers is more than a half. (They give sources for
the numbers.)

TTBOMK, it is very common that C compilers for 8bit
µcontrollers will offer int as a 16bit type.