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

kem-29 Polar-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: Polar-KEM
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: PolarKEM-128, PolarKEM-256, PolarKEM-512
Security evaluation: kem-29 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-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	166.5 k	79.6 µs	1.26e+04	79.5 µs	57380 (5 × 11476)
`PolarKEM-128`	enc	532.3 k	254 µs	3.93e+03	254 µs	19005 (5 × 3801)
`PolarKEM-128`	dec	1.04 M	496 µs	2.02e+03	496 µs	9880 (5 × 1976)
`PolarKEM-256`	keygen	325.7 k	156 µs	6.43e+03	155 µs	30260 (5 × 6052)
`PolarKEM-256`	enc	678.8 k	324 µs	3.08e+03	324 µs	11520 (5 × 2304)
`PolarKEM-256`	dec	1.32 M	633 µs	1.58e+03	633 µs	7675 (5 × 1535)
`PolarKEM-512`	keygen	644.7 k	308 µs	3.25e+03	308 µs	15750 (5 × 3150)
`PolarKEM-512`	enc	1.33 M	637 µs	1.57e+03	637 µs	7680 (5 × 1536)
`PolarKEM-512`	dec	2.61 M	1.25 ms	800	1.25 ms	3935 (5 × 787)

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	26873	1680 KiB	1744 KiB
`PolarKEM-128`	enc	26873	1696 KiB	1792 KiB
`PolarKEM-128`	dec	26873	1720 KiB	1788 KiB
`PolarKEM-256`	keygen	27321	1692 KiB	1784 KiB
`PolarKEM-256`	enc	27321	1716 KiB	1808 KiB
`PolarKEM-256`	dec	27321	1724 KiB	1796 KiB
`PolarKEM-512`	keygen	27689	1696 KiB	1764 KiB
`PolarKEM-512`	enc	27689	1712 KiB	1812 KiB
`PolarKEM-512`	dec	27689	1744 KiB	1812 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%	5.5%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`PolarKEM-128`	enc	91%	0.9%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 6, sm3hash 3
`PolarKEM-128`	dec	95%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 10, sm3hash 5
`PolarKEM-256`	keygen	97%	2.8%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`PolarKEM-256`	enc	88%	0.7%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 6, sm3hash 3
`PolarKEM-256`	dec	92%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 10, sm3hash 5
`PolarKEM-512`	keygen	98%	1.4%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2, sm3hash 1
`PolarKEM-512`	enc	88%	0.5%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 7, sm3hash 3
`PolarKEM-512`	dec	93%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 12, sm3hash 5

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
`PolarKEM-128`	KAT log (sha256 `bd2bab0113c45032…`)	`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 `f5d59e6dbf416b27…`)	`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 `2c1bce2b649fc15f…`)	`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.