FLORENCE, ITALY – An algorithm invented by an Italian professor is set to be installed in the world’s computers, tablets and smartphones to get rid of a bug in the widely used Javascript programme.
The algorithm has been designed to fix a glitch that occurs when Javascript creates pseudocausal numbers, used for online buying and video games.
The algorithm, xorshift128+, has been developed by mathematician Sebastiano Vigna of the State University of Milan. It has been adopted by major browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Safari.
Xorshift generators are very fast, high-quality PRNGs (pseudorandom number generators) obtained by scrambling the output of a Marsaglia xorshift generator with a 64-bit invertible multiplier (as suggested by Marsaglia in his paper). They are an excellent choice for all non-cryptographic applications, as they are very fast, have long periods and their output passes strong statistical test suites.
Professor Vigna received his Laurea in Mathematics from the University of Milano in 1991, and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Milano in 1996. Presently he is an associate professor at the Dipartimento di Informatica of the Università degli Studi di Milano, and a member of the LAW. He is the coordinator of the UMIL unit of the NADINE FET EU project.
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