Performance measurements › x86_1 › kem-32 · system: x86_1 · arm_1

kem-32 Quasi-Cyclic Twisted McEliece 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: Quasi-Cyclic Twisted McEliece Key Encapsulation Mechanism
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: QCTM128, QCTM256, QCTM512
Security evaluation: kem-32 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-32/kat.sha256 in the harness) before timing.

instance	build flags	KAT
`QCTM128`	guide	PASS
`QCTM256`	guide	PASS
`QCTM512`	guide	PASS

4. Performance

instance	operation	mean cycles	mean time	ops/s	median trial	n (trials × iters)
`QCTM128`	keygen	53.85 G	25.9 s	0.0387	25.9 s	65 (5 × 13)
`QCTM128`	enc	18.43 M	8.83 ms	113	8.83 ms	675 (5 × 135)
`QCTM128`	dec	5.90 G	2.83 s	0.354	2.83 s	100 (5 × 20)
`QCTM256`	keygen	132.38 G	63.8 s	0.0157	64.1 s	10 (5 × 2)
`QCTM256`	enc	53.10 M	25.4 ms	39.4	25.3 ms	210 (5 × 42)
`QCTM256`	dec	29.11 G	14 s	0.0714	14 s	60 (5 × 12)
`QCTM512`	keygen	793.78 G	382 s	0.00262	382 s	2 (2 × 1)
`QCTM512`	enc	211.05 M	101 ms	9.92	99 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`QCTM512`	dec	204.27 G	98.5 s	0.0102	98.5 s	5 (5 × 1)

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
`QCTM128`	keygen	94153	3772 KiB	148244 KiB
`QCTM128`	enc	94153	10372 KiB	148096 KiB
`QCTM128`	dec	94153	13368 KiB	148036 KiB
`QCTM256`	keygen	92073	3724 KiB	473396 KiB
`QCTM256`	enc	92073	11836 KiB	472748 KiB
`QCTM256`	dec	92073	22128 KiB	472772 KiB
`QCTM512`	keygen	93385	3680 KiB	1828216 KiB
`QCTM512`	enc	93385	17344 KiB	1825844 KiB
`QCTM512`	dec	93385	17336 KiB	1828260 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
`QCTM128`	167987	192545	640	32
`QCTM256`	595662	641942	1153	32
`QCTM512`	2374727	2467243	2264	64

Symmetric primitives

Survey verdict: bypass — own SHAKE256 for session key/keygen expansion; OpenSSL AES-256-CTR-DRBG seeded by the ICCS DRNG; auxfunc not linked

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
`QCTM128`	keygen	0.0%	0.0%	drng 1
`QCTM128`	enc	0.0%	0.0%	–
`QCTM128`	dec	0.0%	0.0%	–
`QCTM256`	keygen	0.0%	0.0%	drng 1
`QCTM256`	enc	0.0%	0.0%	–
`QCTM256`	dec	0.0%	0.0%	–
`QCTM512`	keygen	0.0%	0.0%	drng 1
`QCTM512`	enc	0.0%	0.0%	–
`QCTM512`	dec	0.0%	0.0%	–

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
`QCTM128`	KAT log (sha256 `0d5002621bfae766…`)	`kat/kem-32/QCTM128.log`
`QCTM128`	timing dec	`records/kem-32/QCTM128__dec.json`
`QCTM128`	timing enc	`records/kem-32/QCTM128__enc.json`
`QCTM128`	timing keygen	`records/kem-32/QCTM128__keygen.json`
`QCTM128`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-32/QCTM128__dec.json`
`QCTM128`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-32/QCTM128__enc.json`
`QCTM128`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-32/QCTM128__keygen.json`
`QCTM256`	KAT log (sha256 `ac7d307c4f89faa6…`)	`kat/kem-32/QCTM256.log`
`QCTM256`	timing dec	`records/kem-32/QCTM256__dec.json`
`QCTM256`	timing enc	`records/kem-32/QCTM256__enc.json`
`QCTM256`	timing keygen	`records/kem-32/QCTM256__keygen.json`
`QCTM256`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-32/QCTM256__dec.json`
`QCTM256`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-32/QCTM256__enc.json`
`QCTM256`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-32/QCTM256__keygen.json`
`QCTM512`	KAT log (sha256 `d556ba96fa877051…`)	`kat/kem-32/QCTM512.log`
`QCTM512`	timing dec	`records/kem-32/QCTM512__dec.json`
`QCTM512`	timing enc	`records/kem-32/QCTM512__enc.json`
`QCTM512`	timing keygen	`records/kem-32/QCTM512__keygen.json`
`QCTM512`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-32/QCTM512__dec.json`
`QCTM512`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-32/QCTM512__enc.json`
`QCTM512`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-32/QCTM512__keygen.json`

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