Performance measurements › x86_1 › kem-15 · system: x86_1 · arm_1

kem-15 FLIT — 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: FLIT
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: FLIT128_REF, FLIT256_REF, FLIT512_REF
Security evaluation: kem-15 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-15/kat.sha256 in the harness) before timing.

instance	build flags	KAT
`FLIT128_REF`	guide	PASS
`FLIT256_REF`	guide	PASS
`FLIT512_REF`	guide	PASS

4. Performance

instance	operation	mean cycles	mean time	ops/s	median trial	n (trials × iters)
`FLIT128_REF`	keygen	140.0 k	66.9 µs	1.49e+04	66.9 µs	69615 (5 × 13923)
`FLIT128_REF`	enc	121.3 k	57.9 µs	1.73e+04	57.9 µs	76440 (5 × 15288)
`FLIT128_REF`	dec	156.9 k	75 µs	1.33e+04	74.9 µs	59630 (5 × 11926)
`FLIT256_REF`	keygen	348.2 k	166 µs	6.01e+03	166 µs	30815 (5 × 6163)
`FLIT256_REF`	enc	255.5 k	122 µs	8.19e+03	122 µs	38830 (5 × 7766)
`FLIT256_REF`	dec	362.5 k	173 µs	5.77e+03	173 µs	27475 (5 × 5495)
`FLIT512_REF`	keygen	1.41 M	674 µs	1.48e+03	674 µs	6540 (5 × 1308)
`FLIT512_REF`	enc	943.2 k	451 µs	2.22e+03	450 µs	10400 (5 × 2080)
`FLIT512_REF`	dec	1.26 M	602 µs	1.66e+03	602 µs	7995 (5 × 1599)

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
`FLIT128_REF`	keygen	31873	1684 KiB	1800 KiB
`FLIT128_REF`	enc	31873	1656 KiB	1784 KiB
`FLIT128_REF`	dec	31873	1716 KiB	1780 KiB
`FLIT256_REF`	keygen	32321	1684 KiB	1804 KiB
`FLIT256_REF`	enc	32321	1720 KiB	1816 KiB
`FLIT256_REF`	dec	32321	1720 KiB	1808 KiB
`FLIT512_REF`	keygen	31745	1724 KiB	1832 KiB
`FLIT512_REF`	enc	31745	1740 KiB	1824 KiB
`FLIT512_REF`	dec	31745	1736 KiB	1804 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
`FLIT128_REF`	615	1351	512	32
`FLIT256_REF`	1229	2605	1024	32
`FLIT512_REF`	3072	6336	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
`FLIT128_REF`	keygen	31%	6.6%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2.98, sm3hash 1
`FLIT128_REF`	enc	52%	3.8%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 3, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 3
`FLIT128_REF`	dec	31%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 3, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 1
`FLIT256_REF`	keygen	28%	2.7%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 3.01, sm3hash 1
`FLIT256_REF`	enc	42%	1.8%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 3, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 3
`FLIT256_REF`	dec	22%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 3, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 1
`FLIT512_REF`	keygen	29%	0.9%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 3.03, pseudohash 1
`FLIT512_REF`	enc	52%	0.7%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 3, pseudohash 4
`FLIT512_REF`	dec	27%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 3, pseudohash 2

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
`FLIT128_REF`	KAT log (sha256 `d2603a7876bbd60f…`)	`kat/kem-15/FLIT128_REF.log`
`FLIT128_REF`	timing dec	`records/kem-15/FLIT128_REF__dec.json`
`FLIT128_REF`	timing enc	`records/kem-15/FLIT128_REF__enc.json`
`FLIT128_REF`	timing keygen	`records/kem-15/FLIT128_REF__keygen.json`
`FLIT128_REF`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-15/FLIT128_REF__dec.json`
`FLIT128_REF`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-15/FLIT128_REF__enc.json`
`FLIT128_REF`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-15/FLIT128_REF__keygen.json`
`FLIT256_REF`	KAT log (sha256 `8f01977fc7f306e3…`)	`kat/kem-15/FLIT256_REF.log`
`FLIT256_REF`	timing dec	`records/kem-15/FLIT256_REF__dec.json`
`FLIT256_REF`	timing enc	`records/kem-15/FLIT256_REF__enc.json`
`FLIT256_REF`	timing keygen	`records/kem-15/FLIT256_REF__keygen.json`
`FLIT256_REF`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-15/FLIT256_REF__dec.json`
`FLIT256_REF`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-15/FLIT256_REF__enc.json`
`FLIT256_REF`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-15/FLIT256_REF__keygen.json`
`FLIT512_REF`	KAT log (sha256 `959bf686d8aadbde…`)	`kat/kem-15/FLIT512_REF.log`
`FLIT512_REF`	timing dec	`records/kem-15/FLIT512_REF__dec.json`
`FLIT512_REF`	timing enc	`records/kem-15/FLIT512_REF__enc.json`
`FLIT512_REF`	timing keygen	`records/kem-15/FLIT512_REF__keygen.json`
`FLIT512_REF`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-15/FLIT512_REF__dec.json`
`FLIT512_REF`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-15/FLIT512_REF__enc.json`
`FLIT512_REF`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-15/FLIT512_REF__keygen.json`

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