The cryptography benchmark suite was internally developed by Oracle to measure the maximum throughput of in-memory, on-chip encryption operations that a system can perform. Multiple threads are used to achieve the maximum throughput. Systems powered by Oracle's SPARC T5 processor show outstanding performance on the tested encryption operations, beating Intel processor based systems.
A SPARC T5 processor running Oracle Solaris 11.1 runs from 2.4x to 4.4x faster on AES 256-bit key encryption than the Intel E5-2690 processor running Oracle Linux 6.3 for in-memory encryption of 32 KB blocks using CFB128, CBC, CCM and GCM modes fully hardware subscribed.
AES CFB mode is used by the Oracle Database 11g for Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) which provides security to database storage.
Performance Landscape
Presented below are results for running encryption using the AES cipher with the CFB, CBC, CCM and GCM modes for key sizes of 128, 192 and 256. Decryption performance was similar and is not presented. Results are presented as MB/sec (10**6).
Encryption Performance – AES-CFB
Performance is presented for in-memory AES-CFB128 mode encryption. Multiple key sizes of 256-bit, 192-bit and 128-bit are presented. The encryption was performance on 32 KB of pseudo-random data (same data for each run).
| AES-CFB Microbenchmark Performance (MB/sec) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | GHz | Chips | Performance | Software Environment |
| AES-256-CFB | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 54,396 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 12,823 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-192-CFB | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 61,000 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 14,928 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-128-CFB | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 68,695 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 17,824 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
Encryption Performance – AES-CBC
Performance is presented for in-memory AES-CBC mode encryption. Multiple key sizes of 256-bit, 192-bit and 128-bit are presented. The encryption was performance on 32 KB of pseudo-random data (same data for each run).
| AES-CBC Microbenchmark Performance (MB/sec) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | GHz | Chips | Performance | Software Environment |
| AES-256-CBC | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 56,933 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 12,822 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-192-CBC | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 63,767 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 14,915 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-128-CBC | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 72,508 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| SPARC T4 | 2.85 | 2 | 31,085 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel X5690 | 3.47 | 2 | 20,721 | Oracle Linux 6.1, IPP/AES-NI |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 17,823 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
Encryption Performance – AES-CCM
Performance is presented for in-memory AES-CCM mode encryption with authentication. Multiple key sizes of 256-bit, 192-bit and 128-bit are presented. The encryption/authentication was performance on 32 KB of pseudo-random data (same data for each run).
| AES-CCM Microbenchmark Performance (MB/sec) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | GHz | Chips | Performance | Software Environment |
| AES-256-CCM | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 29,431 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 12,493 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-192-CCM | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 33,715 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 14,507 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-128-CCM | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 39,188 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 17,256 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
Encryption Performance – AES-GCM
Performance is presented for in-memory AES-GCM mode encryption with authentication. Multiple key sizes of 256-bit, 192-bit and 128-bit are presented. The encryption/authentication was performance on 32 KB of pseudo-random data (same data for each run).
| AES-GCM Microbenchmark Performance (MB/sec) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | GHz | Chips | Performance | Software Environment |
| AES-256-GCM | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 34,101 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 13,520 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-192-GCM | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 36,852 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 14,159 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
| AES-128-GCM | ||||
| SPARC T5 | 3.60 | 2 | 39,003 | Oracle Solaris 11.1, libsoftcrypto + libumem |
| Intel E5-2690 | 2.90 | 2 | 14,877 | Oracle Linux 6.3, IPP/AES-NI |
Configuration Summary
512 GB memory
Oracle Solaris 11.1 SRU 4.2
128 GB memory
Oracle Linux 6.3
Benchmark Description
The benchmark measures cryptographic capabilities in terms of general low-level encryption, in-memory and on-chip using various ciphers, including AES-128-CFB, AES-192-CFB, AES-256-CFB, AES-128-CBC, AES-192-CBC, AES-256-CBC, AES-128-CCM, AES-192-CCM, AES-256-CCM, AES-128-GCM, AES-192-GCM and AES-256-GCM.
The benchmark results were obtained using tests created by Oracle which use various application interfaces to perform the various ciphers. They were run using optimized libraries for each platform to obtain the best possible performance.
See Also
- More about AES
- SPARC T5-2 Server
oracle.com OTN - Sun Server X3-2
oracle.comOTN -
Oracle Solaris
oracle.com OTN
Disclosure Statement
Copyright 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Results as of 3/26/2013.