**EchoPulse: Adaptive Symbolic Key Encapsulation Framework for Cybersecurity, Embedded Defense Systems, and Post-Quantum Resilience**

EchoPulse is a sovereign, non-algebraic post-quantum Key Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM) designed for embedded defense systems, critical infrastructure and resource-constrained environments.

The framework implements Symbolic Graph Path Unpredictability (SGPU) — a deterministic, register-based approach that replaces traditional static transition tables with dynamic, invertible affine permutations over the finite ring ℤ₂³². This results in a virtual graph of 2³² states while maintaining a static memory footprint of exactly zero bytes for the graph topology, making it particularly suitable for microcontrollers, secure elements and sovereign hardware platforms.

This Zenodo release marks the public academic core of EchoPulse v4.2. It continues the evolution started in versions 1.0–3.0 (publicly released in 2024/2025), which established the foundational symbolic-state architecture, hardware optimizations (<6 KB RAM) and initial side-channel mitigation strategies. Version 4.2 represents the decisive breakthrough: the complete transition to a tableless, compiler-shielded register-driven design with volatile zeroization, interlocked SCA protection and comprehensive regression testing.

Included in this release:
• EchoPulse v4.2 Academic Core – mathematical foundation, reference Rust implementation and basic verification suite
• EchoPulse v4.2 Replit Benchmark Proofs – live test results and performance measurements (15/15 regression suite, SCA overhead, volatile zeroization)
• EchoPulse Framework Evolution Retrospective – detailed analysis of the architectural journey from memory-bound tables (v1–v3) to the current tableless production kernel (v4.2)

All core mathematical primitives, test vectors and reference code are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) to support independent research, peer review and academic validation.

The full production-grade Enterprise SDK (including advanced compiler-shielded side-channel interlocking, volatile safe_zeroize pipelines, threshold MPKX and hardened deployment layers) is available via controlled commercial channels:

https://wartenberg5.gumroad.com/l/qheap

Keywords: post-quantum cryptography, key encapsulation mechanism, tableless KEM, symbolic graph cryptography, SGPU, Rust, embedded security, side-channel resistance, open-core, sovereign infrastructure

This release is intended as a transparent, auditable reference implementation for researchers, embedded systems engineers and security auditors exploring non-lattice post-quantum primitives.

Licensing:
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 — Non-commercial use,  works permitted without sovereign licensing approval.

Contact:
tom.wartenberg01@gmail.com
tom.wartenberg@web.de