Fast Gaussian noise generator

Abstract:  Abstract Algorithm description, block diagram, and complete C source code for a fast Gaussian noise generator which uses only integer operations and table lookups are presented. The algorithm achieves its speed of computation by using table lookups to eliminate the need for evaluating transcendental functions. The lookup table requires only 32768 bytes of memory-a small size, even for a personal computer. By using a larger lookup table, the quantization step size can be decreased and the range of coverage increased. Implementation on a Motorola 68020 processor, the generator produced a million Gaussian numbers in 12 s, which is ten times faster than a floating-point random number generator executed with a Motorola 68020-68881 combination