# Raspberry Pi random number generator



## frybsd (Aug 16, 2014)

Does FreeBSD 10 support the hardware random number generator of the Raspberry Pi B? I was searching for details on bcm2835 and bcm2708, but couldn't find anything.


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## SirDice (Aug 19, 2014)

frybsd said:
			
		

> I was searching for details on bcm2835 and bcm2708, but couldn't find anything.


The BCM2835 is the actual SoC that contains the ARM processor and a bunch of auxiliary components. I'm not sure if the specifications are "open" enough so you can download them but you do seem to be able to request it: http://www.broadcom.nl/products/BCM2835


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## frybsd (Aug 21, 2014)

SirDice said:
			
		

> I'm not sure if the specifications are "open" enough so you can download them but you do seem to be able to request it


Debian's bcm2708 module supports the hardware random generator of the Raspberry Pi, so it is open enough. I was wondering if FreeBSD's module uses the random generator as well. There seems to be no file dedicate for it in the repository (https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/tree/master/sys/arm/broadcom/bcm2835), but I didn't look into the code.


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