Performance measurements › x86_1 › kem-08 · system: x86_1 · arm_1

kem-08 BW-KEM — performance on x86-64 (system x86_1)

Independent measurement following the structure of the NICCS x86 self-assessment guide, §3.5 (1)–(7). Not a submitter self-assessment.

1. Basic information

Category: public-key algorithm; function: key encapsulation
Algorithm: BW-KEM
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: BW_KEM_C128, BW_KEM_C256, BW_KEM_C512
Security evaluation: kem-08 report
Measurement method: x86_1 method
Submission: NICCS page

2. Assessment environment

item	value
processor	12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700 (CPU 2, one core)
clock	max 2.10 GHz, governor performance, turbo off, SMT off
memory	31788 MiB
OS / kernel	Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) / 6.12.107+deb13-amd64
compiler / build tool	gcc (Debian 14.2.0-19) 14.2.0 / cmake version 3.31.6
campaign start / end (UTC)	2026-09-25T10:02:21 / 2026-09-28T10:51:21

3. Functional testing (KAT)

Each library was checked against the submitted KAT vectors (SHA-256 manifest kem-08/kat.sha256 in the harness) before timing.

instance	build flags	KAT
`BW_KEM_C128`	guide	PASS
`BW_KEM_C256`	guide	PASS
`BW_KEM_C512`	guide	PASS

4. Performance

instance	operation	mean cycles	mean time	ops/s	median trial	n (trials × iters)
`BW_KEM_C128`	keygen	256.8 k	123 µs	8.15e+03	123 µs	36695 (5 × 7339)
`BW_KEM_C128`	enc	288.5 k	138 µs	7.25e+03	138 µs	34045 (5 × 6809)
`BW_KEM_C128`	dec	338.7 k	162 µs	6.18e+03	162 µs	28755 (5 × 5751)
`BW_KEM_C256`	keygen	645.6 k	308 µs	3.24e+03	308 µs	15405 (5 × 3081)
`BW_KEM_C256`	enc	664.0 k	317 µs	3.15e+03	317 µs	15235 (5 × 3047)
`BW_KEM_C256`	dec	793.0 k	379 µs	2.64e+03	379 µs	12960 (5 × 2592)
`BW_KEM_C512`	keygen	2.14 M	1.02 ms	978	1.02 ms	4780 (5 × 956)
`BW_KEM_C512`	enc	2.16 M	1.03 ms	970	1.03 ms	4760 (5 × 952)
`BW_KEM_C512`	dec	2.51 M	1.2 ms	835	1.2 ms	4115 (5 × 823)

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
`BW_KEM_C128`	keygen	29209	1704 KiB	1768 KiB
`BW_KEM_C128`	enc	29209	1688 KiB	1808 KiB
`BW_KEM_C128`	dec	29209	1628 KiB	1756 KiB
`BW_KEM_C256`	keygen	37177	1724 KiB	1812 KiB
`BW_KEM_C256`	enc	37177	1728 KiB	1792 KiB
`BW_KEM_C256`	dec	37177	1740 KiB	1828 KiB
`BW_KEM_C512`	keygen	37761	1700 KiB	1824 KiB
`BW_KEM_C512`	enc	37761	1732 KiB	1800 KiB
`BW_KEM_C512`	dec	37761	1764 KiB	1832 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
`BW_KEM_C128`	784	1585	768	16
`BW_KEM_C256`	1568	3169	1440	32
`BW_KEM_C512`	3136	6337	2944	64

Symmetric primitives

Survey verdict: ICCS-only — optimized AVX2 auxfunc.c adds an SM3 counter-block fast path

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
`BW_KEM_C128`	keygen	65%	1.8%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 8.02, sm3hash 1
`BW_KEM_C128`	enc	63%	1.6%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 9, sm3hash 1
`BW_KEM_C128`	dec	59%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 10, sm3hash 1
`BW_KEM_C256`	keygen	72%	1.0%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 24.1, pseudohash 1
`BW_KEM_C256`	enc	71%	0.7%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 25, pseudohash 1
`BW_KEM_C256`	dec	64%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 26, pseudohash 1
`BW_KEM_C512`	keygen	77%	0.4%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 24, pseudohash 1
`BW_KEM_C512`	enc	78%	0.3%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 25, pseudohash 1
`BW_KEM_C512`	dec	72%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 26, pseudohash 1

7. Raw evidence index

Paths are relative to performance/data/x86_1/ in the harness; each JSON file records its commands, environment and trials.

instance	item	file
`BW_KEM_C128`	KAT log (sha256 `2cac5db0705e2b71…`)	`kat/kem-08/BW_KEM_C128.log`
`BW_KEM_C128`	timing dec	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C128__dec.json`
`BW_KEM_C128`	timing enc	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C128__enc.json`
`BW_KEM_C128`	timing keygen	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C128__keygen.json`
`BW_KEM_C128`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C128__dec.json`
`BW_KEM_C128`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C128__enc.json`
`BW_KEM_C128`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C128__keygen.json`
`BW_KEM_C256`	KAT log (sha256 `73dc5b29806dd55c…`)	`kat/kem-08/BW_KEM_C256.log`
`BW_KEM_C256`	timing dec	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C256__dec.json`
`BW_KEM_C256`	timing enc	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C256__enc.json`
`BW_KEM_C256`	timing keygen	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C256__keygen.json`
`BW_KEM_C256`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C256__dec.json`
`BW_KEM_C256`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C256__enc.json`
`BW_KEM_C256`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C256__keygen.json`
`BW_KEM_C512`	KAT log (sha256 `7dae74ef633306b0…`)	`kat/kem-08/BW_KEM_C512.log`
`BW_KEM_C512`	timing dec	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C512__dec.json`
`BW_KEM_C512`	timing enc	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C512__enc.json`
`BW_KEM_C512`	timing keygen	`records/kem-08/BW_KEM_C512__keygen.json`
`BW_KEM_C512`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C512__dec.json`
`BW_KEM_C512`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C512__enc.json`
`BW_KEM_C512`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-08/BW_KEM_C512__keygen.json`

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