Premium Bond ERNIE Gets An Upgrade

National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has introduced a new ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) for premium bonds.  ERNIE 5 is the latest addition to the Premium Bond number generating family.

ERNIE 4 is replaced by ERNIE 5, a faster machine that in just 12 minutes produced March’s prize draw, much quicker than ERNIE 4 at 9 hours.

This newest edition randomly generates the premium bond numbers through using light/fibre technology where the previous ERNIE had used thermal ‘noise’.

In the March 2019 draw ERNIE 5 provided over 3 million in prizes worth 92 million.

With premium bonds becoming increasingly more popular, a record £25 billion now invested and prize checking technology moving even quicker, a new ERNIE was needed to keep up with the likes of Alexa and other NS&I prize checker apps.

ERNIE 4 is said to be enjoying retirement amongst the foliage of Bletchley Park in the National Museum of Computing where the ERNIE idea was originally developed as well as the Enigma machine.