ciciec2026/doc/mlkem_test_results.md

ML-KEM Test Results Summary

Test Setup

• Platform: LoongArch bare-metal target
• Test mode: STATIC_KAT_COUNT_0
• Levels: k=2,3,4
• Repeat count: 100
• ML-KEM software allocator: MLK_CONFIG_CUSTOM_ALLOC_FREE
• Verification sources: KAT count 0 expected values

Correctness

All three paths passed in isolated testing:

• SW_ONLY_FAILS=0
• CPU_ONLY_FAILS=0
• DMA_ONLY_FAILS=0

Final result for the isolated diagnostic run:

• MLKEM512_RESULT=PASS
• MLKEM768_RESULT=PASS
• MLKEM1024_RESULT=PASS
• MLKEM_RESULT=PASS

Performance

Multi-level isolated diagnostic

Level	SW avg cycles	CPU avg cycles	DMA avg cycles	CPU vs SW	DMA vs SW	DMA vs CPU
k=2 / ML-KEM-512	19,684,481	432,358	189,105	45.5x	104.1x	2.29x
k=3 / ML-KEM-768	30,688,338	638,556	283,023	48.1x	108.4x	2.26x
k=4 / ML-KEM-1024	2,355,875	872,400	392,433	2.70x	6.00x	2.22x

k=4 recheck

Level	SW avg cycles	CPU avg cycles	DMA avg cycles	CPU vs SW	DMA vs SW	DMA vs CPU
k=4 / ML-KEM-1024	6,025,486	718,672	388,959	8.39x	15.49x	1.85x

Notes

• CPU/DMA hardware paths were stable across 100 iterations for all levels.
• The software path showed run-to-run variance earlier; the custom allocator improved stability, but the k=4 recheck should be used as the cleaner reference for reporting.
• For the hardware accelerator claim, the most stable headline is:
  • DMA path is about 2.2x faster than CPU register path.
  • Hardware path is substantially faster than software, but the exact SW speedup depends on the software run used as baseline.