Early Power Estimators (EPE) and Power Analyzer

Estimate power consumption from early design concept through design implementation. Designers should use Power and Thermal Calculator (PTC) or Early Power Estimators (EPE) in the initial design stages.

Introduction

Power analysis features from that include Early Power Estimators, 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.

Agilex™ and Stratix® 10 Devices

The Agilex™ and Stratix® 10 FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator is integrated with the  Quartus® Prime Design Software. You can access the FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator from the Tools menu in the Quartus Prime Design 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 Quartus Prime Software, a stand-alone version of the FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator is also available. The stand-alone version offers all the same features as the FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator version integrated within the Quartus Prime Software.

You can calculate field-programmable gate power consumption for Agilex and Stratix 10 devices using the FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator, and for more accurate power estimation, use the Power Analyzer in the  Quartus Prime Software. recommends that you switch from the 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 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 FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator

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 Quartus Prime Pro Software
  3. Click on the Additional Software tab
  4. Scroll down to FPGA Power Thermal Calculator and click the download button

FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator User Guide

Link to FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator User Guide

Download Early Power Estimators

Altera® FPGA families with links to respective Early Power Estimator (EPE) worksheets. If you already have design files or a project set up in the 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 Quartus Prime Software.

Download Tool3

 User Guide Known Issues

Stratix® 10 Devices Power Estimator Tools for Dual-Core 1SG10M1, 2

 FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator User Guide Known issues for Early Power Estimator (EPE) tools

Stratix® 10 Device Early Power Estimator1,2

 Early Power Estimator for Stratix® User Guide
Arria® 10 Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Arria® 10 FPGAs User Guide
Cyclone® 10 GX Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Cyclone® 10 GX FPGAs User Guide
Cyclone® 10 LP Device Early Power Estimator  Early Power Estimator for Cyclone® 10 LP FPGAs User Guide
Cyclone® 10 LP Device Early Power Estimator Office 365 Early Power Estimator for Cyclone® 10 LP FPGAs User Guide
MAX® 10 FPGA Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for MAX® 10 FPGA User Guide
Arria® V Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Arria® V User Guide
Cyclone® IV and Cyclone® V Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Cyclone® IV and Cyclone® V User Guide
MAX® V Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for MAX® V Devices User Guide
Stratix® IV and Stratix® V Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Stratix® IV and Stratix® V User Guide
Stratix® III Device Early Power Estimator MS 2010 64-bit Early Power Estimator for Stratix® III User Guide
Stratix® III Device Early Power Estimator MS 2010 32-bit Early Power Estimator for Stratix® III User Guide
Arria® II Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Arria® II User Guide
Cyclone® III Device Early Power Estimator MS 2010 64-bit Early Power Estimator for Cyclone® III User Guide
Cyclone® III Device Early Power Estimator MS 2010 32-bit Early Power Estimator for Cyclone® III User Guide
Cyclone® II Device Early Power Estimator Power Calculator for Cyclone® II User Guide
MAX® II Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for MAX® II Devices User Guide
Stratix GX Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Stratix®, Stratix® GX & Cyclone® FPGAs User Guide
Arria® GX Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Arria® GX User Guide
Cyclone Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Stratix®, Stratix® GX & Cyclone® FPGAs User Guide
MAX Device Early Power Estimator --
Stratix® II, Stratix® II GX, and HardCopy® II Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Stratix® II, Stratix® II GX, and HardCopy™ II User Guide
Stratix Device Early Power Estimator Early Power Estimator for Stratix®, Stratix® GX & Cyclone® FPGAs User Guide

Notes:

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

  1. The 19.4 version of the Stratix 10 Device Early Power Estimator is the final release of this tool. Starting 20.1 release, it is replaced by the new FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator, which supports both Stratix 10 and Agilex devices. The FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator is available either integrated within the Quartus Prime Software or as a stand-alone version. The stand-alone version is available for download from the Download Center for FPGA page under the Additional Software tab. 
  2. For Stratix 10 devices, recommends using the FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator as it uses the latest power models. The download link for 19.4 Stratix 10 FPGA Early Power Estimator (EPE) will be removed at a future date.
  3. For Legacy Device Families – please visit the respective Legacy Device Support Collections.
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Known issues for Early Power Estimator (EPE) tools

Microsoft has released an update to fix this issue, please go to the corresponding Microsoft Support Page based on your Excel version:

·         Excel 2013*: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2920754

If the above update doesn't fix the issue, or if you do not have access to these updates, try the following workaround steps:

1.    Reboot the computer if you've installed the above update.

2.    Close all Microsoft Office applications including the Excel* and Word* applications.

3.    Open a Windows* Explorer, and enter "%temp%" (without quotes) into the address bar.

4.    Press "Ctrl" + "F" and enter ".exd" (without quotes) into the search box.

5.    If any files with extension ".exd" are found, select and delete ALL the files that are found.

6.    Next, enter "%appdata%" (without quotes) into the address bar. Again, press "Ctrl" + "F" and search for ".exd", and delete ALL the files that are found.

7.    Reopen the EPE.

If the issues remain, follow these steps:

1.    Launch the EPE tool, go to File -> Info-> Compatibility Mode, and click Convert.

2.    If a pop-up appears, click OK to proceed with conversion, and then click Yes to reopen the workbook.

The previous steps convert the original ".xls" EPE file into a ".xlsm" file. The newly created file should not exhibit the original issue.

Microsoft's description for this issue can be found at:

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2726958

This is due to the Excel 2013 application stability issue.

To solve the problem, please install the Microsoft Office 2013 Service Pack 1. You can find more information about this update at the Microsoft Support page: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2817430

The previous steps convert the original ".xls" EPE file into a ".xlsm" file. The newly created file should not exhibit the original issue.

Microsoft's description for this issue can be found at: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2726958