05 September 2012

John Cage, AWGN

In honor of John Cage's 100th birthday, I would like to call attention to a fine application note from Maxim Semiconductor, describing a simple circuit for generating random noise. As can be seen in Figure 2, the circuit generates a practical white Gaussian noise signal from DC to several hundred Megahertz.





I've been meaning to build myself one of these circuits for years--not for the alleged pleasure of pretending to enjoy aleatoric nonsense while in the company of academic snobs, but for the practical purpose of testing communication circuits in a noisy environment.  

NOTES

1. Both figures are from the application note, "Building a Low-Cost White-Noise Generator," Maxim Semiconductor, March 14, 2005, http://pdfserv.maximintegrated.com/en/an/AN3469.pdf.





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