CIRCE CROSS Integrated RISC-V Cryptographic Extension

20 April 2026

Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is moving from algorithm selection to deployment, where performance, energy, and software portability are key constraints, especially on embedded and IoT-class processors. Many PQC schemes stress general-purpose cores with irregular control flow, large arithmetic workloads, and heavy memory traffic. Instruction-set extensions (ISE) and tightly integrated accelerators offer a practical middle ground: they speed up dominant kernels while preserving programmability and avoiding the rigidity of fully fixed-function hardware. In this context, we target post-quantum digital signatures, which remain under active evaluation, including NIST’s 2023 call for additional schemes. We focus on CROSS, a code-based signature built from zero-knowledge proofs and the Restricted Syndrome Decoding Problem, and present CIRCE: a RISC-V–integrated extension connected through the Core-V eXtension Interface (CV-X-IF). CIRCE supports both R-SDP and R-SDP(G), runs across all official parameter sets without hardware retuning, and achieves an average 2× speed-up on a Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA with an ultra-compact footprint (down to 800 LUTs / 100 FFs).