OpenTRNG for Random Numbers on Ever-Shrinking Hardware

OpenTRNG is not a product; it’s a development framework and toolbox that industrial partners can use to develop and test their own TRNGs.

Pat Brans, EETimes Europe (February 14, 2025)

CEA-Leti has recently released an open-source framework for ring-oscillator true random-number generators (TRNGs) to help industrial players and academic researchers develop high-grade random-number generators.

TRNGs are the basis for much of the cryptography used today. They produce random numbers from an external unpredictable physical source, such as single-photon reflection on a 45° surface—or in the case of the semiconductor industry, thermal or electromagnetic noise. The random numbers are used for generating cryptographic keys for encryption and digital signatures—or as seeds for other algorithms that generate noise for masking data and securing chips.

CEA-Leti has a research program dedicated to finding new TRNG architectures to meet the requirements of the next generation of electronic components, cryptographic systems, and certification standards. While TRNGs rely on different sources, CEA-Leti focuses primarily on ring-oscillator-based architectures, which the research institute says is the most widely implemented in secure components.

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