Performance measurements › x86_1 › kem-27 · system: x86_1 · arm_1

kem-27 NTRE Key Encapsulation Mechanism — 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: NTRE Key Encapsulation Mechanism
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: NTRE-128, NTRE-256, NTRE-512
Security evaluation: kem-27 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-27/kat.sha256 in the harness) before timing.

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

4. Performance

instance	operation	mean cycles	mean time	ops/s	median trial	n (trials × iters)
`NTRE-128`	keygen	142.3 k	68 µs	1.47e+04	67.9 µs	63495 (5 × 12699)
`NTRE-128`	enc	113.7 k	54.3 µs	1.84e+04	54.3 µs	80195 (5 × 16039)
`NTRE-128`	dec	113.2 k	54.1 µs	1.85e+04	54.1 µs	80620 (5 × 16124)
`NTRE-256`	keygen	261.1 k	125 µs	8.02e+03	125 µs	36490 (5 × 7298)
`NTRE-256`	enc	220.1 k	105 µs	9.51e+03	105 µs	44055 (5 × 8811)
`NTRE-256`	dec	230.7 k	110 µs	9.07e+03	110 µs	42380 (5 × 8476)
`NTRE-512`	keygen	574.5 k	274 µs	3.64e+03	274 µs	17400 (5 × 3480)
`NTRE-512`	enc	535.8 k	256 µs	3.91e+03	256 µs	18895 (5 × 3779)
`NTRE-512`	dec	541.9 k	259 µs	3.86e+03	259 µs	18455 (5 × 3691)

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
`NTRE-128`	keygen	26833	1696 KiB	1788 KiB
`NTRE-128`	enc	26833	1708 KiB	1780 KiB
`NTRE-128`	dec	26833	1704 KiB	1792 KiB
`NTRE-256`	keygen	27625	1712 KiB	1788 KiB
`NTRE-256`	enc	27625	1704 KiB	1808 KiB
`NTRE-256`	dec	27625	1680 KiB	1808 KiB
`NTRE-512`	keygen	28753	1700 KiB	1780 KiB
`NTRE-512`	enc	28753	1736 KiB	1800 KiB
`NTRE-512`	dec	28753	1732 KiB	1796 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
`NTRE-128`	972	1976	972	64
`NTRE-256`	1944	3920	1944	64
`NTRE-512`	3456	6944	3456	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
`NTRE-128`	keygen	28%	6.6%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`NTRE-128`	enc	49%	5.4%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`NTRE-128`	dec	30%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 2
`NTRE-256`	keygen	29%	3.5%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`NTRE-256`	enc	49%	3.4%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`NTRE-256`	dec	28%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 2
`NTRE-512`	keygen	22%	1.6%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`NTRE-512`	enc	44%	2.0%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`NTRE-512`	dec	30%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 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
`NTRE-128`	KAT log (sha256 `ab39c026e265dc9c…`)	`kat/kem-27/NTRE-128.log`
`NTRE-128`	timing dec	`records/kem-27/NTRE-128__dec.json`
`NTRE-128`	timing enc	`records/kem-27/NTRE-128__enc.json`
`NTRE-128`	timing keygen	`records/kem-27/NTRE-128__keygen.json`
`NTRE-128`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-128__dec.json`
`NTRE-128`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-128__enc.json`
`NTRE-128`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-128__keygen.json`
`NTRE-256`	KAT log (sha256 `22af84c4f0f20a40…`)	`kat/kem-27/NTRE-256.log`
`NTRE-256`	timing dec	`records/kem-27/NTRE-256__dec.json`
`NTRE-256`	timing enc	`records/kem-27/NTRE-256__enc.json`
`NTRE-256`	timing keygen	`records/kem-27/NTRE-256__keygen.json`
`NTRE-256`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-256__dec.json`
`NTRE-256`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-256__enc.json`
`NTRE-256`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-256__keygen.json`
`NTRE-512`	KAT log (sha256 `70b4df4abed55279…`)	`kat/kem-27/NTRE-512.log`
`NTRE-512`	timing dec	`records/kem-27/NTRE-512__dec.json`
`NTRE-512`	timing enc	`records/kem-27/NTRE-512__enc.json`
`NTRE-512`	timing keygen	`records/kem-27/NTRE-512__keygen.json`
`NTRE-512`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-512__dec.json`
`NTRE-512`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-512__enc.json`
`NTRE-512`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-27/NTRE-512__keygen.json`

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