Power consumption prediction by extrapolation

In this thread

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38168&p=157327#post157327

There is a file de0_nano_power.pdf

This is a design where the device was filled with counters that could be selectively enabled. Several versions of the designs were tested with different counter widths. You can see from the straight lines that extrapolation of the design would have been sufficient to predict a larger design.

So, yes, you can extrapolate your data. If you would like to be conservative in your power estimates, you can create a similar design to that used to test the DE0-nano - since the counters used in that design have the worst-case toggle rates (a 1-bit counter toggles on every clock).

Cheers,

Dave

--- Quote Start ---

In this thread

http://www.alteraforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38168&p=157327#post157327

There is a file de0_nano_power.pdf

This is a design where the device was filled with counters that could be selectively enabled. Several versions of the designs were tested with different counter widths. You can see from the straight lines that extrapolation of the design would have been sufficient to predict a larger design.

So, yes, you can extrapolate your data. If you would like to be conservative in your power estimates, you can create a similar design to that used to test the DE0-nano - since the counters used in that design have the worst-case toggle rates (a 1-bit counter toggles on every clock).

Cheers,

Dave

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Ok, so if I implement 20 times my initial design which consumes 240mW, I should have a power consumption of 20*240mW? It seems to be a lot but it's what I guess after your de0_nano_power.pdf scheme...

Or is it only the core dynamic power consumption which needs to be multiplied by 20?

Thanks for helping!

J-B

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Ok, so if I implement 20 times my initial design which consumes 240mW, I should have a power consumption of 20*240mW? It seems to be a lot but it's what I guess after your de0_nano_power.pdf scheme...

Or is it only the core dynamic power consumption which needs to be multiplied by 20?

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There are three things you would need to consider; core static power (which goes up with temperature), core dynamic power, and I/O power.

If you have an evaluation kit, my advice is to run a few hardware tests with your design and a worst-case toggle design and see how much they differ.

I've tried to get estimates from Quartus PowerPlay, eg., for the DE0-nano design, but the estimates do not match hardware measurements, so I have low confidence. The estimates were based on .vcd dumps from Modelsim, so they should have been accurate. The simulations for larger designs take forever, so using an evaluation kit is a more effective use of time.

Cheers,

Dave