Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition User Guide: Power Analysis and Optimization

ID 683174
Date 6/22/2022
Public

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1.3.1. Settings for Power Analysis

You can specify device power characteristics, operating voltage conditions, operating temperature conditions, Power Analyzer settings and thermal settings, in the Operating Settings and Conditions, Power Analyzer Settings, and Thermal pages of the Settings dialog box.
Figure 3.  Operating Settings and Conditions

Figure 4. Power Analyzer and Thermal Settings

The Power Analyzer reads the following settings to determine the operating conditions for power analysis:

Table 2.  Device Operating Condition Settings
Option Settings
Device power characteristics
  • Typical—specifies average power consumed by typical silicon at nominal operating conditions.
  • Maximum—specifies maximum power consumed by worst-case device.
Voltage tab Specifies the operating voltage conditions for each power rail in the device, and the supply voltages for power rails with selectable supply voltages.
Temperature tab Specifies the minimum and maximum junction temperature range.

Table 3.  Power Analyzer and Thermal Settings
Option Settings
Power Analyzer Settings Specifies the Power Analyzer options, including:
  • Run Power Analyzer during compilation—Check this box to turn on power analysis during compilation.
  • Use input file(s) to initialize toggle rates and static probabilities during power analysis—Check this box to use Signal Activity Files or VCD files to initialize toggle rates and static probabilities for power estimation.
  • Write out signal activities used during power analysis—Check this box to write the toggle rates and static probabilities used during power estimation to a file.
  • Write out Power and Thermal Calculator file—Check this box to have the Power Analyzer export a design summary that you can import into the Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator.
  • Write signal activities to report file—Check this box to have the Power Analyzer write a report file containing the signal activities used during power analysis.
  • Write power dissipation by block to report file—Check this box to have the Power Analyzer report the thermal power dissipation calculated during power analysis, in the Thermal Power Dissipation by Block report panel.
  • Default toggle rate used for input I/O signals—Specify a default toggle rate for use on input I/O pins during power estimation. Can be expressed as a percentage or in transitions/second.
  • Default toggle rate used for remaining signals
    • Use default value—Specify a default toggle rate for use during power estimation on all nodes except I/O pins. This value is used only if no toggle rate is specified through a Signal Activity File, VCD file, or user assignment. Can be expressed as a percentage or in transitions/second.
    • Use vectorless estimation—Turn on this control to use vectorless estimation to fill in undefined toggle rates and static probabilities. If this option is not available, the device family does not support vectorless estimation.
Thermal Settings Specifies the thermal power analysis temperature conditions, including:
  • Thermal Solver Mode—Select the thermal solver mode to use during power estimation.
  • Junction temperature—Specifies the junction temperature, in °C, used during power estimation.
  • Ambient temperature—Specifies the ambient temperature, in °C, used during power estimation.
  • Cooling solution—Specifies the cooling solution case-to-ambient thermal resistance, in °C per watt.
  • Maximum junction temperature limit—Specifies the maximum junction temperature limit that no part of any die in the package should exceed.
  • Apply additional margin—Specifies, as a percentage, the amount of additional margin to apply to detailed thermal analysis results. Valid values are 0–25%. The default value is 0%. The recommended margin for Intel® Agilex™ devices is 10%, and for Intel® Stratix® 10 devices, 25%.
    Note: For a design compiled in an earlier version of the Intel® Quartus® Prime software with the Apply Recommended Margin parameter set to Yes, the current version of Power Analyzer interprets this as an Apply Additional Margin setting of 25%.
  • Temperature measurement method—Select the method to use for reporting temperature sensors for thermal analysis.