Sampling of random numbers from arbitrary distributions

A system for probabilistic computing, the system comprising:

• a storage device that stores program instructions;
• and
• one or more processors operably connected to the storage device and configured to execute the program instructions to cause the system to:
• specify a target distribution for a computational model, wherein the target distribution is defined by a function;
• perform a number of coin flips with a number of weighted coinflip devices, wherein weights for the coinflip devices are determined by the function;
• and
• convert the number of coinflips to a random number from the target distribution according to outputs of the weighted coinflip devices, wherein a circuit uses the coin flips as inputs to randomly activate bits in a binary representation of the random number.

A computer program product for probabilistic computing, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable storage medium having program instructions embodied thereon to perform the steps of:
• specifying a target distribution for a computational model, wherein the target distribution is defined by a function;
• performing a number of coin flips with a number of weighted coinflip devices, wherein weights for the coinflip devices are determined by the function;
• and
• converting the number of coinflips to a random number from the target distribution according to outputs of the weighted coinflip devices, wherein a circuit uses the coin flips as inputs to randomly activate bits in a binary representation of the random number.