[SOLVED] Why is power important in FPGA

[arpitsodani]

Hi, I am a student and new to FPGA world.
Can anyone tell me why is power optimization important in FPGA ??
only reason i can think of is that FPGA's are used for prototyping ASIC which need to work with minimum power.
Is there any other reason?

Regards
Arpit

 

[TrickyDicky]

there is no comparison between FPGA and ASIC. Asic wins every time. Power optimization is only important if it's important. Some people are not that bothered, whilst other people are. But more power usage = more heat, and you got to get rid of it somehow.

 

[arpitsodani]

So, Can you name some FPGA applications where power is necessary to be optimized?????

 

[TrickyDicky]

When a customer demands that the total power supply is a specified wattage?
Battery powered devices?
Somewhere where heat is a problem.

In the first instance you might pick a low powere part (spartan, cyclone) but for the other two you probably wouldnt use an FPGA at all.

 

[arpitsodani]

Thanks...

 

[jadwin79]

So, Can you name some FPGA applications where power is necessary to be optimized?????

Sure -- we had an application where our board did not have a heat sink on the FPGA, and after implementing some video processing we were getting close to or exceeding the temperature limits of the device, requiring us to add a fan and heat sink. This is not uncommon with modern huge FPGAs. So that was not even a battery powered application, where obviously power consumption is an important metric.