Feedback shift registers with carry operation (FCSR’s) are described, implemented, and analyzed with respect to memory requirements, initial loading, period, and distributional properties of their output sequences. Many parallels with the theory of linear feedback shift registers (LFSR’s) are presented, including a synthesis algorithm (analogous to the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm for LFSR’s) which, for any pseudorandom sequence, constructs the smallest FCSR which will generate the sequence. These techniques are used to attack the summation cipher. This analysis gives a unified approach to the study of pseudorandom sequences, arithmetic codes, combiners with memory, and the Marsaglia-Zaman random number generator. Possible variations on the FCSR architecture are indicated at the end. Index Terms – Binary sequence, shift register, stream cipher, combiner with memory, cryptanalysis, 2-adic numbers, arithmetic code, 1/q sequence, linear span. 1

A classical topic in combinatorics is the study of problems of the following type: What are the maximum families F of subsets of a finite set with the property that the intersection of any two sets in the family satisfies some specified condition? Typical restrictions on the intersections F n F of any F and F ’ in F are: (i) FnF’ # 0, where all FEF have k elements (Erdos, Ko, and Rado (1961)). (ii) IFn F’I> j (Katona (1964)). In this paper, we consider the following general question: For a given family B of subsets of [n] = { 1, 2,..., n}, what is the largest family F of subsets of [n] satsifying F,F’EF-FnFzB for some BE B. Of particular interest are those B for which the maximum families consist of so-called “kernel systems, ” i.e., the family of all supersets of some fixed set in B. For example, we show that the set of all (cyclic) translates of a block of consecutive integers in [n] is such a family. It turns out rather unexpectedly that many of the results we obtain here depend strongly on properties of the well-known entropy function (from information theory).

Recently, a new class of feedback shift registers (FCSRs) was introduced, based on algebra over the 2-adic numbers. The sequences generated by these registers have many algebraic properties similar to those generated by linear feedback shift registers. However, it appears to be significantly more difficult to find maximal period FCSR sequences. In this paper we exhibit a technique for easily finding FCSRs that generate nearly maximal period sequences. We further show that these sequence have excellent distributional properties. They are balanced, and nearly have the deBruijn property for distributions of subsequences.

We consider several generalizations and variations of the character sum inequalities of Weil and Burgess. A number of incomplete character sum inequalities are proved while further conjectures are formulated. These inequalities are motivated by extremal graph theory with applications to problems in computer science. 1 1.