An experimental study of building blocks of lattice-based NIST post-quantum cryptographic algorithms

Security of currently deployed public-key cryptography algorithms is foreseen to be vulnerable against quantum computer attacks. Hence, a community effort exists to develop post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms, most notably the NIST PQC standardization competition. In this work, we have investigated how lattice-based candidate algorithms fare when implemented in hardware. To achieve this, we have assessed 12 lattice-based algorithms in order to identify their basic building blocks. We assume the algorithms will be implemented in an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) platform and the targeted technology is 65 nm. To estimate the characteristics of each algorithm, we have assessed the following characteristics: memory requirements, use of multipliers, and use of hashing functions. Furthermore, for these building blocks, we have collected area and power figures for all studied algorithms by making use of commercial memory compilers and standard cells. Our results reveal interesting insights about the relative importance of each building block for the overall cryptosystem, which can be used for guiding ASIC designers when selecting an algorithm or when deciding where to focus optimization efforts such that the final design respects requirements and design constraints.