Final Answer:
a. The maximum period obtainable from the given generator is 8.
b. The value of \(a\) should be 3.
c. The seed should be a positive integer less than 8.
Step-by-step explanation:
The generator function is
. To find the maximum period, we need to determine the order of 
 modulo 8. The values of 
that result in the maximum period are those where \(a\) is coprime to 8. Since 3 is the only positive integer less than 8 that is coprime to 8, the optimal value for 
 is 3.
To elaborate, the generator's period is determined by the order of 
modulo 8. The order of an integer 
 modulo 
 is the smallest positive integer 
 such that 
. In this case, 
, so the order of 3 modulo 8 is 2. Therefore, the maximum period is 
, and to achieve this,
 must be 3.
Regarding the seed, since the generator is modulo 8, the seed should be a positive integer less than 8 to ensure that the output remains within the desired range. This restriction on the seed guarantees that the generator will produce a repeating sequence with a maximum period of 4 when 
 is set to 3.