[Numpy-discussion] PRNGs and multi-threading

[Sturla Molden]

Xavier Saint-Mleux skrev:
> Of course, the mathematically correct way would be to use a correct
> jumpahead function, but all the implementations that I know of are GPL. 
> A recent article about this is:
>
> www.iro.umontreal.ca/~lecuyer/myftp/papers/jumpmt.pdf
>
>   
I know of no efficient "jumpahead" function for MT. Several seconds for 
1000 jumps ahead is not impressive -- just generating the deviates is 
faster!

With DCMT it is easy to create "independent" MTs with smaller periods. 
Independence here means that the "characteristic polynomials are 
relatively prime to each other". A "small" period of e.g. 2**521 - 1 
means that if we produce 1 billion deviates per minute, it would still 
take the MT about 10**143 years to cycle. Chances are we will not be 
around to see that happen. It also seems that nvidia has endorsed this 
method:

http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/sdk/website/projects/MersenneTwister/doc/MersenneTwister.pdf



S.M.