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fix(crypto): REU-less X25519 under USE_NISTCURVES_ONCHIP — fe_mul rows via og_common - #69

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JC-000 merged 2 commits into
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feat/fe25519-onchip-rows
Jul 29, 2026
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fix(crypto): REU-less X25519 under USE_NISTCURVES_ONCHIP — fe_mul rows via og_common#69
JC-000 merged 2 commits into
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feat/fe25519-onchip-rows

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Summary

Fixes#67. Under USE_NISTCURVES_ONCHIP, fe_mul's multiply-row fetch now
goes through a new fe_gen_mul_row stub — the exact fp256 gen_mul_row
pattern: SMC-patch the sibling og_common's og_src_ld operand to
mul_src2_buf (already fe_mul's absolute staging buffer), X=31, delegate.
The reu_fetch_mul_row import is compiled out under onchip so the X25519
path cannot silently regress to the REU-DMA fetch.

Scope note: fe_sqr has no REU dependency (quarter-square tables only) —
exactly one call site changes.

Design decision (og_common, not a CT generator): the in-tree fe25519
path is already non-CT on secret data (zero-skip on src1[i]/src2[j] byte
values, data-dependent carry branches, mult66 sign branch), so a CT row
generator would not restore constant time — it would only cost ~2x.
og_common's staged-entry contract (nonzero staged bytes + diagonal) matches
fe_mul's beq read set exactly. Cost: ~+1.8 min per scalarmult at stock
1 MHz (analytical; ~3.2K cy/row on-chip vs ~600 DMA).

Rides along:tools/test_x25519.py--slow driver fix — the RFC 7748
vectors have been failing at HEAD on every build (zero coverage): the driver
fed raw scalars but x25519_scalarmult doesn't clamp (production clamps via
x25519_clamp in tls_ecdh.s first). Proven byte-exact that the ladder was
computing the correct product for the unclamped scalar; the driver now
clamps, mirroring production order.

Validation

buildREUresult
onchipnone73/73 incl. RFC 7748 (worker) + 71/71 fast suite (independent supervisor rerun)
onchip-reu73/73
default REU profile-reu73/73, PRG byte-identical to master
onchip ECDSA KATnone3/3
comblinks, sqtab@$BC00 guard passes

With #68 (ip65 refit) this completes the path to a genuinely REU-less
stock-C64 PRG.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

JC-000and others added 2 commits July 28, 2026 11:00
…s via og_common
fe_mul's row fetch bound to the sibling's REU-DMA reu_fetch_mul_row even
under the onchip profile, so the 'no REU required' onchip build computed
garbage X25519 (KAT-confirmed: fe_mul 3/3 WRONG in VICE without -reu).
Under USE_NISTCURVES_ONCHIP fe_mul now generates each row on-chip via a
gen_mul_row-style stub (og_src_ld SMC-patch to mul_src2_buf, X=31, jmp
og_common) — the exact fp256 pattern.
Design decision: og_common reuse (non-CT) over a CT fixed-count
generator. In-tree fe_mul is already data-dependent on secret bytes
(src1[i]==0 / src2[j]==0 zero-skips, carry-propagation branches; fe_sqr's
mult66 sign branch likewise), so a CT row generator would not restore
constant time — it would only cost ~2x. og_common's staged-src contract
(entries for nonzero staged bytes + diagonal, zero-skip) matches fe_mul's
read set exactly; mul_src2_buf is already the absolute staging buffer.
fe_sqr needs no change: it reads sqtab/sqtab2 quarter-square tables
directly (mult66 inline), no REU rows. fe_mul_a24 uses mul38 tables.
Cost estimate at 1 MHz: ~3.2K cy/row on-chip vs ~600 cy DMA → +~85K cy
per fe_mul; X25519 scalarmult ≈ 1276 fe_mul → +~1.8 min per scalarmult
at stock clock (fe_sqr/fe_inv dominated by sqr, unaffected). Turbo hosts
scale it away — same shape as the verify-path onchip tradeoff.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The --slow RFC 7748 vectors failed on EVERY build/config (default REU
profile included, VICE -reu on) with deterministic wrong outputs.
x25519_scalarmult does not clamp; production clamps via x25519_clamp in
tls_ecdh.s before the ladder. The test driver wrote raw RFC scalars, so
the C64 computed the correct product for the UNCLAMPED scalar — verified
byte-exact against a Python reference ladder run with the raw scalar.
Test-only fix: jsr x25519_clamp before x25519_scalarmult, mirroring the
production call order.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@JC-000
JC-000 merged commit 9f0d59b into masterJul 29, 2026
JC-000 added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 12, 2026
…ndshake wall-clock (#74)
* fix(tls): per-backend post-ServerHello drain budget — UCI 125.4 s -> expect ~56 s
Fixes#73. Regression introduced by #71 (merged), measured on C64 Ultimate
hardware: the shipped UCI onchip handshake+GET went 51.0 s -> 125.4 s at
48 MHz, a ~2.5x wall-clock regression. Correctness was never affected.
The drain compensates for a property only ip65 has: it ACKs inbound TCP
data only when the consumer pumps net_poll, so without draining, the
server's post-SH flight tail sits unACKed through the multi-minute
ECDHE/verify stalls and impatient peers drop the connection. UCI firmware
ACKs autonomously — which is exactly why that bug was never observable on
Ultimate hardware — so on UCI the drain has nothing to buy.
Its cost, though, is anything but backend-neutral. An ip65 net_poll is a
cheap NIC pump; a UCI net_poll is a full firmware command round-trip
(SOCKET_READ: uci_wait_not_busy, uci_begin_cmd, 4x uci_put_byte,
uci_push_wait, uci_check_err, header read, uci_drain_resp +
uci_drain_status + uci_ack — ~25 fenced register accesses plus FPGA
turnaround). Measured ~37 ms/poll at 48 MHz, of which only ~2.8 ms is
fence time; the rest is clock-invariant firmware turnaround, so turbo
does not amortize it. 2000 polls = ~70 s.
Move the budget into a per-backend net_tuning.inc, resolved through the
existing `-I src/net/$(BACKEND)` include path so tls13.s stays
backend-agnostic:
ip65: 8 x 250 = 2000 polls (UNCHANGED — the validated figure)
uci: 1 x 16 = 16 polls (~0.6 s; a deliberate small hedge rather
than 0, so anything already queued still lands in the ring before
the long stalls without relying on firmware autonomy being
absolute. Non-zero matters: the loop's dex/bne shape turns an
INNER of 0 into 256 iterations.)
Verified in the assembled listing: ip65 emits A0 08 / A2 FA, uci emits
A0 01 / A2 10. All five profiles link with unchanged sizes (47,105 B ip65,
62,977 B uci). The ip65 images are byte-identical to master, so the ip65
e2e evidence from #71 carries over untouched; the UCI side needs a
hardware re-measure (expected ~56 s = 51.0 s baseline + ~4.5 s for #69's
on-chip X25519 rows at this clock).
Process note for the record: I approved #71's unconditional drain with an
"~1 s on UCI turbo" estimate that counted fence time only and ignored
firmware turnaround — off by ~70x. An iteration-count budget calibrated
on one backend's poll cost is precisely the failure mode that
c64-lib-contract SPEC §13.4 (bounded waits must be wall-clock-based)
exists to prevent. A TOD-bounded idle drain (poll until the ring stops
growing) would be the principled backend-agnostic variant; it needs care
around CIA1 TOD latch interaction with the UCI adapter's own TOD waits,
so it is left as a documented refinement rather than bundled here.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* tools/uci: skip redundant turbo write — unblocks C64U 64 MHz measurement
The C64 Ultimate speed-switch quirk is sharper than CLAUDE.md records, and
in a way that made 64 MHz unmeasurable: the bridge glitch is caused by the
REST config WRITE itself, it SURVIVES the following reset, and it fires
even when the written value equals the current one.
Evidence (C64U 10.53.21.158, onchip UCI build, 2026-07-29): three 64 MHz
attempts each wrote "64" while the device was ALREADY at 64 MHz, and each
lost its first TCP_CONNECT — UCI_ERR_NO_SOCKET, net_tcp_state=CONNECT_FAIL,
all TLS/HTTP state zero, ring head==tail==0, no SYN on the wire. The same
PRG at the same 64 MHz setting passes under tools/uci/test_http_local.py,
whose only material difference is that it performs no config write before
its reset. At 48 MHz the identical pattern costs only the first attempt
(fail, pass on retry), which is why this hid for so long.
Fix: probe Turbo Control + CPU Speed first and skip the write entirely when
they already match (the common case for repeat runs at one speed), and give
a genuine change a 3.0 s settle instead of 0.5 s (TURBO_SETTLE overrides).
The probe is best-effort — if it raises, we write as before. Both sides of
the speed comparison are str()-normalised so a firmware type change cannot
silently restore always-write.
Not the wedge signature (that reaches ENC1 RX and stalls); this never opens
a socket. Found by the hardware worker while validating #72/#73 — it blocked
the 64 MHz headline number for PR #74.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(tools/uci): turbo probe read the wrong JSON shape — skip was unreachable
The redundant-write skip added in e044f51 never fired on the C64U: the probe
read `get_config_item(...).get("value")`, but the REST config responses wrap
items in a `<Category>` key and put each value directly under the ITEM name —
there is no per-item "value" key. The probe therefore returned None/None on
every device, `str(None) != "48"`, and the code always took the write path
(log line: "Setting turbo to 48 MHz (from None/None)...").
Fix: mirror the harness's own get_reu_config — fetch the category, unwrap,
index by item name — using public API only (no reliance on the private
_unwrap). One request now covers both items instead of two. `.get(CAT, cat)`
tolerates a response with or without the wrapper.
Verified without hardware by parsing all three plausible shapes (wrapped,
flat, int-typed CPU Speed): the skip decision comes out True for each, so a
firmware shape or type change degrades to "write anyway" rather than to a
silent wrong answer.
Caught because the write path logs the probed values ("from None/None") —
keeping the observed state in that message is what made an unreachable branch
visible in a passing run. Worth remembering.
Note the 3.0 s settle from e044f51 is doing real work independently: the first
genuine speed change under it (64->48) connected on the first attempt, where
every pre-fix genuine change cost a NO_SOCKET retry.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
JC-000 added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 12, 2026
The benchmark tables predated three merged changes and one open fix, and
several status claims had gone stale. Measured numbers only — no
extrapolated figures.
**e2e wall-clock.** The 2026-07-20 campaign rows are kept as history and
labelled as such; a new "Post-#74 e2e numbers" block records HEAD:
device profile clock pre-#71 post-#71 post-#74
C64U onchip 48 MHz 51.0 s 125.4 s 44.6 s
C64U onchip 64 MHz 39.7 s (unmeas.) 33.7 s
U64E REU 48 MHz 82.1 s 161.0 s 82.1 s
Both onchip rows land BELOW their pre-regression baselines and the REU row
lands exactly AT it — a REU build cannot contain #69 (its change is inside
.ifdef USE_NISTCURVES_ONCHIP), so the pair is a clean control showing #69
is a SPEEDUP at turbo, not a cost. The doc now states that explicitly,
including why the sign is easy to get wrong: the profile's 1 MHz penalty
exists only because REU DMA is cheap relative to the CPU down there, and
inverts above the crossover. (I got this backwards during the campaign;
recording the reasoning so the next reader doesn't.)
**New: ip65 / stock-C64 wall-clock**, the first ip65 e2e figures we have —
36.0 min honest 1 MHz REU-less, with the phase breakdown, plus the
accelerated runs. Notes that the verify stretch came in 1.4% off the
T(f)=D+C/f prediction three orders of magnitude from where that model was
fit, and that ip65's drain budget is byte-identically unchanged by #74 so
the numbers stand at HEAD.
**Corrected stale claims:**
- "ip65 is NOT packaged: does not link" — it links (#68). Explains the
SCRATCH_UNION lifetime argument and its guards, notes packaging it is now
a live option since a stock C64 + RR-Net has no shipped PRG today, and
demotes c64-nist-curves#54 from blocker to optional headroom.
- The CRYPTO_COLD_SHADOW "1,662 B overflow, cfg relief exhausted" entry,
same fix.
- The X25519-sibling entry claimed the old BSS overflow. Re-measured
2026-07-29: USE_X25519_SIBLING=1 under ip65 still fails, but on a
DIFFERENT problem — X25519_RODATA over CRYPTO_OVERLAY by 2,048 B and
LIB_NISTCURVES_P256_CODE over CRYPTO_RESIDENT by 103 B, i.e. code/rodata
placement (ip65's overlay slot is 4,212 B vs UCI's 7.5 KB), not BSS.
Better to state the measured failure than leave a fixed one on the page.
**New design note** for the post-ServerHello drain: the ip65 property that
motivates it (no MSS in SYN + ACK-only-when-polled), the offline-verify
failure signature it prevents, why the budget must be per-backend (~40 ms
per UCI net_poll vs a cheap ip65 pump — the #73 regression), current
values, and the two open follow-ups (in-crypto polling for large flights;
a wall-clock/idle bound instead of an iteration count, which is what the
section's own rule actually demands).
**New Smoke-tests subsection** for the hardware-free VICE ip65 rig, with
the two prerequisites that are easiest to lose: the patched
ethernet-capable VICE (stock macOS builds gate pcap on geteuid()==0) and
the /dev/bpf permissions that reset every reboot. Also replaces the
"blocked on an upstream ip65 bug (see lost memory note)" line with what is
actually known now.
Stacked on fix/drain-backend-budget: the post-#74 rows describe that PR's
tree, not master's.
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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onchip profile is not REU-free: fe25519_mul still REU-DMAs multiply rows — "No REU required" onchip PRG fails full handshake without REU

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