In an effort to facilitate a faster, more efficient system
development workflow, MathWorks has
announced MATLAB
Coder, a tool that lets design engineers automatically generate readable
and portable C or C++ code directly from their MATLAB algorithms.
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The MATLAB technical computing software is widely deployed
in the concept development of electronic and communications systems, to create
the algorithms at the core of these platforms. Eventually, however, the MATLAB
algorithms need to be converted into C code for the prototyping stage and for
integration into the final product-a step that has been a manual, highly
iterative process and one that could take from days to weeks to perform,
depending on the complexity of the program, according to Ken Karnofsky, senior
strategist at MathWorks. With the introduction of MATLAB Coder, instead of
manually converting the code and risk the possibility of introducing design
errors and time-to-market delays, the code is automatically converted from
MATLAB to C, greatly speeding up development tasks such as fixed-point design
and prototyping, Karnofsky says.
"The difference with manual translation or recoding is that
you have two versions of the program-one on MATLAB and another in C++," he
explains. "As engineers make refinements, they can get out of sync with each
other. In addition, iterations can be quite time consuming and expensive since
problems are discovered later in the process when bugs are harder to fix."
MATLAB Coder will aid in tasks where translation is
critical, including the creation of reusable libraries, real-time prototyping
for creating a standalone executable, to accelerate algorithms to implement
code for embedded processors. The tool supports MEX function generation for
fixed-point and floating-point math in addition to an extensive set of MATLAB
language features for algorithm development, including built-in matrix math
operators and dynamic array handling.
MathWorks also used the MATLAB Coder announcement to
consolidate some of its other code generation offerings.
Simulink Coder
combines capabilities previously available in multiple MathWorks offerings, and
Embedded Coder
offers full code generation support for rapid prototyping, real-time testing
and production of embedded systems, including links to embedded development
environments.
In separate news, MathWorks
announced that TÜV SÜD certified Simulink Design Verifier and Simulink
Verification and Validation for use in ISO 26262 compliant development
processes. The organization specializes in independent assessments and
certifications and this latest one will help automotive engineers developing
high-integrity embedded systems establish the required confidence in the proper
functioning of these verification tools according to their use cases.
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