Multiplication-Free Linear Congruential Random Number Generators

Abstract

Computer simulation has been widely used in scientific and engineering applications. These applications demand efficient, high-quality random number generators. Linear congruentail random number generators in various forms are one of the most widely used and extensively studied. This paper presents linear congruential generators with multipliers having a few of ± 2k terms. These generators can be implemented with no multiplication. They are portable and very fast. The statistical and timing result shows that multiplication-free linear congruential generators can achieve high speed with no degradation on quality. Vectorization of these generators using parallel instructions is briefly addressed. The hardware design of a generator is also presented.