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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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9 years ago

Power analysis flow from OpenCL

Hi guys,

I'm trying to figure out if I can carry out a power analysis on a kernel I have without firing up Quartus PowerPlay. My knowledge of Quartus and all that entails is lacking so if there was some way I could get the same output via OpenCL it would save me a good deal of effort. Cheers!

4 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    Go inside the folder that is generated by AOC and run "quartus_pow top.qpf". This will generate the power report in text format after a few minutes. Of course the estimation will be done with default settings since you are not supplying signal activity info.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    Thanks for replying. I was hoping to actually supply signal activity but I'm struggling in generating vcd files via OpenCL. Doesn't seem to be any easy way to do this. The verilog generated isn't to amenable to simulation in modelsim

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    Judging by all the IP Cores and hundreds, if not thousands, of input and output signals involved when OpenCL is used, I don't think it would at all be possible to obtain signal activity by simulation, unless Altera specifically provides a tool for it. If you want accurate power measurement, you should probably consider using an external power meter.

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
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    9 years ago

    Yeah, I've come to that conclusion myself. I would have been very useful if I could have generated vcd files from OpenCL execution but it looks like I'll be firing up the DC power analyzer