Performance measurements › arm_1 › kem-29 · system: x86_1 · arm_1

kem-29 Polar-KEM — performance on AArch64 (system arm_1)

Independent measurement following the structure of the NICCS ARM self-assessment guide, §3.5 (1)–(7). Not a submitter self-assessment.

1. Basic information

Category: public-key algorithm; function: key encapsulation
Algorithm: Polar-KEM
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: PolarKEM-128, PolarKEM-256, PolarKEM-512
Security evaluation: kem-29 report
Measurement method: arm_1 method
Submission: NICCS page

2. Assessment environment

item	value
processor	Qualcomm Oryon (CPU 2, one core)
machine	ASUS Vivobook S 15
clock	fixed 2.71 GHz (governor performance, minimum = maximum), boost off, SMT none
memory	30562 MiB
OS / kernel	Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS / 7.0.0-34-generic
compiler / build tool	gcc (Ubuntu 15.2.0-16ubuntu1) 15.2.0 / cmake version 4.2.3
campaign start / end (UTC)	2026-09-28T15:05:46 / 2026-09-29T08:43:52

3. Functional testing (KAT)

Each library was checked against the submitted KAT vectors (SHA-256 manifest kem-29/kat.sha256 in the harness) before timing.

instance	build flags	KAT
`PolarKEM-128`	guide	PASS
`PolarKEM-256`	guide	PASS
`PolarKEM-512`	guide	PASS

4. Performance

instance	operation	mean cycles	mean time	ops/s	median trial	n (trials × iters)
`PolarKEM-128`	keygen	158.4 k	58.8 µs	1.7e+04	58.5 µs	50315 (5 × 10063)
`PolarKEM-128`	enc	495.7 k	184 µs	5.44e+03	183 µs	16845 (5 × 3369)
`PolarKEM-128`	dec	985.7 k	366 µs	2.73e+03	364 µs	8605 (5 × 1721)
`PolarKEM-256`	keygen	309.4 k	115 µs	8.71e+03	115 µs	26610 (5 × 5322)
`PolarKEM-256`	enc	619.8 k	230 µs	4.35e+03	230 µs	13020 (5 × 2604)
`PolarKEM-256`	dec	1.25 M	464 µs	2.16e+03	462 µs	6690 (5 × 1338)
`PolarKEM-512`	keygen	612.2 k	227 µs	4.4e+03	227 µs	13635 (5 × 2727)
`PolarKEM-512`	enc	1.23 M	455 µs	2.2e+03	452 µs	6890 (5 × 1378)
`PolarKEM-512`	dec	2.46 M	915 µs	1.09e+03	912 µs	3430 (5 × 686)

5. Resource consumption

Static memory is approximated by the library's loadable ELF segments; peak memory is the process high-water mark (VmHWM) including the benchmark driver and libc, so both are upper-bound proxies rather than isolated algorithm memory.

instance	operation	static: ELF image (bytes)	baseline RSS	peak RSS
`PolarKEM-128`	keygen	23948	1416 KiB	1484 KiB
`PolarKEM-128`	enc	23948	1424 KiB	1492 KiB
`PolarKEM-128`	dec	23948	1424 KiB	1492 KiB
`PolarKEM-256`	keygen	24396	1420 KiB	1488 KiB
`PolarKEM-256`	enc	24396	1432 KiB	1500 KiB
`PolarKEM-256`	dec	24396	1432 KiB	1500 KiB
`PolarKEM-512`	keygen	24844	1428 KiB	1496 KiB
`PolarKEM-512`	enc	24844	1444 KiB	1512 KiB
`PolarKEM-512`	dec	24844	1448 KiB	1516 KiB

6. Transmission and storage overhead

External public-key, ciphertext and signature sizes follow the curated performance/external_sizes.csv catalog; secret-key and shared-secret lengths remain API figures. See the size audit for disagreements.

instance	public key	secret key	ciphertext	shared secret
`PolarKEM-128`	1024	2048	768	16
`PolarKEM-256`	2048	4096	1280	32
`PolarKEM-512`	4096	8192	2304	64

Symmetric primitives

Survey verdict: ICCS-only

Share of each operation spent in the ICCS placeholder hash functions and in the ICCS DRNG (reference build, measured in the same run with link-time wrappers):

instance	operation	pseudohash/XOF/sm3	DRNG	calls per operation
`PolarKEM-128`	keygen	94%	5.4%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`PolarKEM-128`	enc	94%	0.8%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 6, sm3hash 3
`PolarKEM-128`	dec	96%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 10, sm3hash 5
`PolarKEM-256`	keygen	97%	2.8%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`PolarKEM-256`	enc	92%	0.7%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 6, sm3hash 3
`PolarKEM-256`	dec	94%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 10, sm3hash 5
`PolarKEM-512`	keygen	98%	1.4%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`PolarKEM-512`	enc	92%	0.5%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 7, sm3hash 3
`PolarKEM-512`	dec	94%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 12, sm3hash 5

7. Raw evidence index

Paths are relative to performance/data/arm_1/ in the harness; each JSON file records its commands, environment and trials.

instance	item	file
`PolarKEM-128`	KAT log (sha256 `c2502fa32beacfb5…`)	`kat/kem-29/PolarKEM-128.log`
`PolarKEM-128`	timing dec	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-128__dec.json`
`PolarKEM-128`	timing enc	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-128__enc.json`
`PolarKEM-128`	timing keygen	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-128__keygen.json`
`PolarKEM-128`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-128__dec.json`
`PolarKEM-128`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-128__enc.json`
`PolarKEM-128`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-128__keygen.json`
`PolarKEM-256`	KAT log (sha256 `1548f7e7f0f51ab9…`)	`kat/kem-29/PolarKEM-256.log`
`PolarKEM-256`	timing dec	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-256__dec.json`
`PolarKEM-256`	timing enc	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-256__enc.json`
`PolarKEM-256`	timing keygen	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-256__keygen.json`
`PolarKEM-256`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-256__dec.json`
`PolarKEM-256`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-256__enc.json`
`PolarKEM-256`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-256__keygen.json`
`PolarKEM-512`	KAT log (sha256 `6ae84953cf4f7c37…`)	`kat/kem-29/PolarKEM-512.log`
`PolarKEM-512`	timing dec	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-512__dec.json`
`PolarKEM-512`	timing enc	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-512__enc.json`
`PolarKEM-512`	timing keygen	`records/kem-29/PolarKEM-512__keygen.json`
`PolarKEM-512`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-512__dec.json`
`PolarKEM-512`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-512__enc.json`
`PolarKEM-512`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-29/PolarKEM-512__keygen.json`

Scripts: performance/campaign.py, performance/ngcc_perf.c, performance/hashprof/ in the harness.