I'd like to get some feedback on how accurate the AM335x Power Estimation tool is?
We are working on a design based on the AM3352 300MHz in the ZCZ package and we'd like to know how low total board power consumption we can get with the processor still able to receive and respond to Ethernet traffic (WoL is not an option). For purposes of this estimate there isn't much on the board other than the processor 2Gbit of DDR3, 2Gbit of NAND flash, 1 Ethernet Phy/Magnetics, a serial port, and the power management IC.
When we compare the values in the Power Consumption tables here they don't really jive with the numbers provided from the Power Estimation Tool using this input file (Please visit the site to view this file) the results file (Please visit the site to view this file) indicates that the total power is about half that from the measured values from the Power Consumption wiki and estimated power consumption for the VDD_DDR is minuscule in comparison.
In addition the Power Estimation Tool numbers also don't really match up with simple measurements that we can take from the BBB. Again the Power Estimation tool numbers seem much lower.
I've tried to make the BBB behave as close to our target design as possible but I haven't quite figured out how to turn off things we don't plan to use like the LCDC, SGX, USB Phy, or MMC interfaces.
Also I haven't been able to determine if the AM3352 should consume less power than the AM3358 that is on both the BBB and the EVM boards.
Any advice, previous experiences, tips, tricks, etc would be very helpful.
Thanks,
Matt S.