Empirical tests of the intrinsic pseudorandom number generator on IBM-compatible microcomputers

This paper reports results of frequency and serial correlation tests, for 30 different seeds and two different seeding mechanisms (the RANDOMIZE statement and the RND function), of a Microsoft pseudorandom number generator available on IBM-compatible (and some IBM) microcomputers. The generator is shown to perform well on these screening tests, in comparison to previously reported results for the Microsoft generator available on IBM-PC microcomputers. However, the generator seeding mechanisms--the RANDOMIZE statement and the RND function--exhibit anomalies similar to those of the IBM-PC generator, and could result in seeding which is inconsistent with the desire of the user. Furthermore, the differences in the randomness characteristics of sequences of numbers generated by IBM and IBM-compatible microcomputers have serious implications regarding the true compatibility of the two types of microcomputers.