Altera PowerPlay Early Power Estimator - Manual (Page 12)

2–4 Altera Corporation
PowerPlay Early Power Estimator For Arria GX FPGAs May 2008
Entering Information into the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator
5. After importing the file to populate the PowerPlay Early Power
Estimator, you can manually edit the cells to reflect final device
resource estimates.
Estimating Power After Completing the FPGA Design
When you complete your FPGA design, the PowerPlay Power Analyzer
in the Quartus II software provides the most accurate estimate of device
power consumption. The PowerPlay Power Analyzer uses simulation,
user mode, and default toggle rate assignments, in addition to place-and-
route information, to determine power consumption. Altera strongly
recommends that you use the PowerPlay Power Analyzer when your
FPGA design is complete.
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For more information about how to use the PowerPlay power analyzer
in the Quartus II software, refer to the PowerPlay Power Analysis chapter
in the Quartus II Handbook.
Entering
Information into
the PowerPlay
Early Power
Estimator You can either manually enter power information into the PowerPlay
Early Power Estimator spreadsheet or load a PowerPlay Early Power
Estimator file generated by the Quartus II software version 7.1. You can
also clear all the values currently in the PowerPlay Early Power
Estimator.
Clearing All Values
All user entered values can be reset in the PowerPlay Early Power
Estimator spreadsheet by clicking Reset.
1 In order to use the Reset feature, you must enable macros for the
spreadsheet. If you have not enabled macros for the
spreadsheet, you need to reset all user-entered values manually.
Manually Entering Information
You can manually enter values into the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator
spreadsheet in the appropriate section. White, unshaded cells are input
cells and may be modified. Each section contains a column where you can
specify a module name based on your design.
Importing a File
If you already have an existing design or a partially completed design, the
power estimation report file generated by the Quartus II software
contains the device resource information. You can import this device
resource information from the Quartus II software PowerPlay Early