17–12
Chapter 17: Understanding and Evaluating Power in MAX II Devices
PowerPlay Early Power Estimator Inputs
Reset
Clears all input values in the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator spreadsheet.
Importing the Quartus II Early Power Estimator File
If you have created the user design, you can use the Quartus II software to generate
the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator file and then import this file into the PowerPlay
Early Power Estimator spreadsheet. This power estimation report file contains the
device resource information and importing this file saves you time and effort
otherwise spent manually entering information into the PowerPlay Early Power
Estimator spreadsheet. You can manually change any of the values after importing the
file.
To generate the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator file, first compile your design in the
Quartus II software. After that, on the Project menu, click Generate PowerPlay Early
Power Estimator File. The Quartus II software creates a PowerPlay Early Power
Estimator file with the name
<revision name>_early_pwr.csv.
f
For more information about generating the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator file in
the Quartus II software, refer to the PowerPlay Power Analysis chapter in volume 3 of
the Quartus II Handbook.
To import data into the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator spreadsheet, perform the
following steps:
1. Click Import Quartus File in the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator spreadsheet.
2. Browse to a power estimation file generated from the Quartus II software. Click
OK.
Clicking OK clears any user-entered values in the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator
spreadsheet and populates the PowerPlay Early Power Estimator spreadsheet with
device resource information from the specified power estimation file.
After importing a file, manually specify some of the input parameters in the main
section. These input parameters include:
■
■
■
VCCINT supply voltage
Ambient temperature
Airflow
The ambient temperature and airflow are used for thermal analysis only. Refer to the
input parameters section for more information on these parameters.
The clock frequency values imported into PowerPlay Early Power Estimator Clock
Domain, Logic, and I/O modules are the same as the fMAX values of the design. You
can manually edit the clock frequency and the toggle percentage in the PowerPlay
Early Power Estimator spreadsheet to suit your system requirements.
MAX II Device Handbook
© October 2008 Altera Corporation
ALTERA [ ALTERA CORPORATION ]
