Hi!
I want to make a device that randomly generates a 0 or 1(heads/tails). What IC's
could I use? Or a microcontroller is better?
Thanks.
If you want a standalone device, noise diodes and zener diodes are often
used to generate noise. Amplify it up and sample it, and you can get a
virtually random noise source. In the simple digital department, you could
also use a Linear Feedback Shift Register (look for more information at
Xilinx). It's a simple state machine, so it's far from random (if you know
the last N bits out of an N bit LFSR, you can predict all future bits), but
it might be adequate. If someone has to push a button to show the head or
tail, then a simple clock (a few kHz is adequate) and a T flip-flop should
work well enough: stop the flip-flop when the button is pressed, and
display the state. If you use a microcontroller, you could program just
about any algorithm you want to.
-- Mike --