Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator User Guide

ID 683445
Date 6/20/2022
Public

A newer version of this document is available. Customers should click here to go to the newest version.

Document Table of Contents

2.3.1. Estimating Power Consumption Before Starting the FPGA Design

Table 1.  Advantage and Constraints of Power Estimation before Designing FPGA
Advantage Constraint
  • You can obtain power estimates before starting your FPGA design.
  • You can adjust design resources and parameters and see how those changes affect total power consumption.
  • Accuracy depends on your inputs and your estimate of the device resources. Where this information may change (during or after your design is complete), your power estimation results are less accurate.
  • The Intel® FPGA PTC uses averages and not the actual design implementation details. The Power Analyzer has access to the full design details. For example, the Intel® FPGA PTC uses average values for ALM configuration, while the Power Analyzer uses an exact configuration for each ALM.

To estimate power consumption with the Intel® FPGA PTC before starting your FPGA design, follow these steps:

  1. On the Main page of the Intel® FPGA PTC, select the target device, device grade, package, and transceiver grade from the Device, Device Grade, Package, and Transceiver Grade drop-down lists.
  2. Enter values for each page in the Intel® FPGA PTC. Different pages display different power-consuming FPGA resources, such as clocks and phase-locked loops (PLLs).
  3. The calculator displays the total estimated power consumption in the Total Power cell of the Power Summary. By default, the Total Power on the Main page is calculated using Typical Power, with a fixed, specified, uniformly distributed junction temperature of 25° C. When performing power estimates for power delivery or thermal solution design, it is important to utilize the most accurate power estimation. To obtain a more accurate estimation of power, select Maximum Power and use the calculation modes on the Thermal page.
  4. Save the file as <project_name>.ptc for later use.
Note: For information on the individual pages of the Intel® FPGA PTC, refer to the Power and Thermal Calculator Pages chapter.