Performance measurements › x86_1 › kem-41 · system: x86_1 · arm_1

kem-41 ZEN — 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: ZEN
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: ZEN_128, ZEN_256, ZEN_512
Security evaluation: kem-41 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-41/kat.sha256 in the harness) before timing.

instance	build flags	KAT
`ZEN_128`	guide	PASS
`ZEN_256`	guide	PASS
`ZEN_512`	guide	PASS

4. Performance

instance	operation	mean cycles	mean time	ops/s	median trial	n (trials × iters)
`ZEN_128`	keygen	222.8 k	106 µs	9.4e+03	106 µs	38060 (5 × 7612)
`ZEN_128`	enc	143.8 k	68.7 µs	1.46e+04	68.7 µs	65455 (5 × 13091)
`ZEN_128`	dec	191.9 k	91.6 µs	1.09e+04	91.6 µs	50210 (5 × 10042)
`ZEN_256`	keygen	391.5 k	187 µs	5.35e+03	187 µs	24105 (5 × 4821)
`ZEN_256`	enc	200.6 k	95.8 µs	1.04e+04	95.9 µs	48975 (5 × 9795)
`ZEN_256`	dec	327.4 k	156 µs	6.39e+03	156 µs	30765 (5 × 6153)
`ZEN_512`	keygen	970.2 k	463 µs	2.16e+03	463 µs	11600 (5 × 2320)
`ZEN_512`	enc	501.9 k	240 µs	4.17e+03	240 µs	19830 (5 × 3966)
`ZEN_512`	dec	788.0 k	376 µs	2.66e+03	377 µs	12735 (5 × 2547)

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
`ZEN_128`	keygen	37285	1720 KiB	1812 KiB
`ZEN_128`	enc	37285	1712 KiB	1776 KiB
`ZEN_128`	dec	37285	1728 KiB	1792 KiB
`ZEN_256`	keygen	43773	1716 KiB	1832 KiB
`ZEN_256`	enc	43773	1712 KiB	1776 KiB
`ZEN_256`	dec	43773	1716 KiB	1832 KiB
`ZEN_512`	keygen	54309	1728 KiB	1860 KiB
`ZEN_512`	enc	54309	1768 KiB	1848 KiB
`ZEN_512`	dec	54309	1776 KiB	1840 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
`ZEN_128`	615	1303	512	16
`ZEN_256`	1229	2605	1024	32
`ZEN_512`	2458	5210	2048	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
`ZEN_128`	keygen	29%	4.8%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 3.05, sm3hash 1
`ZEN_128`	enc	67%	3.2%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 2, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 1
`ZEN_128`	dec	49%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 2, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 1
`ZEN_256`	keygen	36%	2.8%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 3.02, sm3hash 1
`ZEN_256`	enc	47%	2.3%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 2, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 1
`ZEN_256`	dec	28%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 2, pseudohash 1, sm3hash 1
`ZEN_512`	keygen	46%	1.3%	drng 2, pseudoXOF 2.93, pseudohash 1
`ZEN_512`	enc	57%	1.2%	drng 1, pseudoXOF 2, pseudohash 2
`ZEN_512`	dec	34%	0.0%	pseudoXOF 3, 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
`ZEN_128`	KAT log (sha256 `8a3a3eca0c641b15…`)	`kat/kem-41/ZEN_128.log`
`ZEN_128`	timing dec	`records/kem-41/ZEN_128__dec.json`
`ZEN_128`	timing enc	`records/kem-41/ZEN_128__enc.json`
`ZEN_128`	timing keygen	`records/kem-41/ZEN_128__keygen.json`
`ZEN_128`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_128__dec.json`
`ZEN_128`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_128__enc.json`
`ZEN_128`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_128__keygen.json`
`ZEN_256`	KAT log (sha256 `1845f0d8c0b37b47…`)	`kat/kem-41/ZEN_256.log`
`ZEN_256`	timing dec	`records/kem-41/ZEN_256__dec.json`
`ZEN_256`	timing enc	`records/kem-41/ZEN_256__enc.json`
`ZEN_256`	timing keygen	`records/kem-41/ZEN_256__keygen.json`
`ZEN_256`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_256__dec.json`
`ZEN_256`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_256__enc.json`
`ZEN_256`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_256__keygen.json`
`ZEN_512`	KAT log (sha256 `1cf6340204719a3f…`)	`kat/kem-41/ZEN_512.log`
`ZEN_512`	timing dec	`records/kem-41/ZEN_512__dec.json`
`ZEN_512`	timing enc	`records/kem-41/ZEN_512__enc.json`
`ZEN_512`	timing keygen	`records/kem-41/ZEN_512__keygen.json`
`ZEN_512`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_512__dec.json`
`ZEN_512`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_512__enc.json`
`ZEN_512`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-41/ZEN_512__keygen.json`

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