ChaosKey To Production

Keith Packard
ChaosKey is a true random number generator. It contains a noise source
and an ARM SoC with a USB interface and provides about 1MB/s of random
bits, suitable for replenishing the meager supply available in a
typical Linux machine. All of the hardware designs, firmware, linux
drivers and other software are available under share-alike
licenses. The hardware and software development tools are also free
software.

Development of ChaosKey started almost three years ago, and the first
batch of 1000 that we've built was received in August and made
available for sale.

This presentation will describe the hardware and software design
process, including the many dead ends and hardware iterations
symptomatic of a software engineer's approach to hardware
design. Portions of the hardware were adapted from other free hardware
projects showing how ideas from share-alike software licenses can be
successful in the world of hardware too.