1. A Fast Random Number Generator for IBM 360.
- Author
-
Seraphin, Dominic S.
- Subjects
- *
ASSEMBLY languages (Electronic computers) , *FORTRAN , *PROGRAMMING languages , *ALGORITHMS , *RANDOM numbers , *IBM computers - Abstract
The article presents information on an Assembler language routine and to point out that the time lost in linkage is more than compensated by the time saved in the floating algorithm and in the direct conversion into the unit interval without division by the modulus or multiplication by its reciprocal. The set of six instructions to produce one (0, 1) random number requires only 11.88 microseconds in IBM 360/67. Even allowing an overhead time of 4.23 microseconds for the calling sequence will still make this generator faster than the two-line Fortran generator reported in [1], which takes about 26.46 microseconds. Further, any Fortran program can call this Assembler language routine by the function reference RN(O), where 0 is a dummy argument.
- Published
- 1969
- Full Text
- View/download PDF