Early Power Estimators (EPE) and Power Analyzer

Power analysis features from Intel that include Early Power Estimators, Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator, and the Power Analyzer give you the ability to estimate power consumption, as shown in Figure 1. As you provide more details about your design characteristics, estimation accuracy is improved from early design concept through design implementation.

Power analysis from design concept through design implementation.

For Intel® Agilex™ and Intel® Stratix® 10 devices, the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator is integrated with the Intel® Quartus® Prime Software. You can access the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator from the Tools menu in the Intel Quartus Prime Software, or by running the quartus_ptc command in your command shell. For the convenience of designers who may be working only on power estimation and not running design compilations with the Intel Quartus Prime Software, a stand-alone version of the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator is also available. The stand-alone version offers all the same features as the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator version integrated within the Intel Quartus Prime Software.

You can calculate field-programmable gate power consumption for Intel Agilex and Intel Stratix 10 devices using the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator, and for more accurate power estimation, use the Power Analyzer in the Intel Quartus Prime Software. Intel recommends that you switch from the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator to the Power Analyzer once your design is available. The Power Analyzer produces more accurate results because it has more detailed information about your design, including routing and configuration information about each of the resources in your design. You should treat the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator results as an estimate of power, not as a specification. You must verify the actual power consumption during device operation because the information is sensitive to the actual device and design input signals.

Download the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator

Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator Stand-Alone

1. You can download the PTC tool from the FPGA Software Download Center
2. Select the latest version of Intel Quartus Prime Pro Software
3. Click on the Additional Software tab
4. Scroll down to Intel® FPGA Power Thermal Calculator and click the download button

Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator User Guide

Link to Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator User Guide

Intel FPGA families with links to respective Early Power Estimator (EPE) worksheets. If you already have design files or a project set up in the Intel Quartus Prime Software, you can have the software generate data to automatically populate the worksheets. During implementation, you can refine your power estimates using the Power Analyzer tool in the Intel Quartus Prime Software.

The version of EPE worksheet that you use must correspond to the version of the Intel Quartus Prime Software or earlier versions of Intel Quartus Development Software. For example, if you use the Intel Quartus Development Software v13.1 to generate the EPE file, you must use the EPE worksheet version 13.1.

¹The 19.4 version of the Intel Stratix 10 Device Early Power Estimator is the final release of this tool. Starting 20.1 release, it is replaced by the new Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator, which supports both Intel Stratix 10 and Intel Agilex devices. The Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator is available either integrated within the Intel Quartus Prime Software or as a stand-alone version. The stand-alone version is available for download from the Intel Download Center for FPGA page under the Additional Software tab.

For Intel Stratix 10 devices, Intel recommends using the Intel FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator as it uses the latest power models. The download link for 19.4 Intel Stratix 10 FPGA Early Power Estimator (EPE) will be removed at a future date.

Related Links

• Power Distribution Network web page ›