Patent ID: 8217679

Claim:
A method for determining in real time a power usage of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) without the use of external components, comprising: a) storing in a memory on the FPGA one or more coefficients associated with a power usage formula, the one or more stored coefficients determined according to a curve fit power estimate of said power usage formula for said FPGA over a range of temperatures and voltages, and further based on a given logic design model of said FPGA; b) sensing in real-time on the FPGA a temperature of the FPGA; c) sensing in real-time on the FPGA an input voltage applied to the FPGA; d) determining in real-time the power usage of the FPGA based on the sensed temperature of the FPGA, the input voltage of the FPGA, and at least one of the stored one or more coefficients, according to said power usage formula; wherein sensing said temperature and said input voltage are performed without use of external components.