Crypto++ benchmarks cycles/byte vs. megacycles/operation With respect to Crypto++ benchmarks: https://www.cryptopp.com/benchmarks.html

Why is it that there are different metrics collected for block ciphers(i.e. cycles/byte) than for public key cryptosystems(i.e. megacycle/operation)?

Why can't the RSA operations be benchmarked by using cycles/byte as well?
The reason for this is that RSA and other asymmetric operations are not used for bulk encryption (or bulk signature generation, if such a term exists).

If a lot of data needs to be signed/verified or encrypted/decrypted then a hybrid cryptosystem will be used instead.

In the case of signature generation / verification most if not all of the plaintext will be hashed by a secure hash algorithm. This hash value will be used as input for signature generation or verification using the asymmetric keys.

For encryption a symmetric cipher will be used. The symmetric key will be wrapped / unwrapped or derived using the asymmetric keys.



So you'd use just a single operation when it comes to asymmetric primitives such as RSA for most operations.

If hybrid encryption is used you'd use a single operation for the asymmetric primitive and then add the amount of time required to hash or encrypt the amount of data.