Introduction
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.
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.
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
- You can download the PTC tool from the FPGA Software Download Center
- Select the latest version of Quartus Prime Pro Software
- Click on the Additional Software tab
- 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.