Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator User Guide

ID 683445
Date 9/26/2022
Public

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6.1. Toggle Rate

The toggle rates specified in the Intel® FPGA Power and Thermal Calculator (PTC) can have a large impact on the dynamic power consumption displayed. To obtain an accurate estimate, you must input toggle rates that are realistic. Determining realistic toggle rates requires knowing what kind of input the FPGA is receiving and how often it toggles.

To get an accurate estimate if the design is not complete, isolate the separate modules in the design by function, and estimate the resource usage along with the toggle rates of the resources. The easiest way to accomplish this is to use previous designs to estimate the toggle rates for modules with similar function.

The input data in the following figure is encoded for data transmission and has a roughly 50% toggle rate.

Figure 37. Decoder and Encoder Block Diagram


In this case, you must estimate the following:
  • Data toggle rate
  • Mod Input toggle rate
  • Resource estimate for the Decoder, RAM, Filter, Modulator, and Encoder module
  • Toggle rate for the Decoder, RAM, Filter, Modulator, and Encoder module

You can generate these estimates in many ways. If you used similar modules in the past with data inputs of roughly the same toggle rates, you can use that information. If MATLAB* simulations are available for some blocks, you can obtain the toggle rate information from the simulations. If the HDL is available for some of the modules, you can simulate them to obtain toggle rates.

If the HDL is complete, the best way to determine toggle rates is to simulate the design. The accuracy of toggle rate estimates depends on the accuracy of the input vectors. Therefore, determining whether or not the simulation coverage is high gives you a good estimate of how accurate the toggle rate information is.

The Intel® Quartus® Prime software can determine toggle rates of each resource used in the design if you provide information from simulation tools. Designs can be simulated in many different tools and the information provided to the Intel® Quartus® Prime software through a Signal Activity File (.saf) or Value Change Dump (.vcd) file. The Intel® Quartus® Prime Power Analyzer provides the most accurate power estimate.