Integrated approach to embedded system design

A significant upgrade of The MathWorks' principal products has led to Simulink 4.0, Stateflow 4.0 and Real-Time Workshop 4.0 being introduced as part of the company's Release 12

The MathWorks is introducing the world's most advanced model-based design software for embedded control systems development.

The new embedded systems design solution is based on The MathWorks' established range of design tools.

A significant upgrade of its principal products has led to Simulink 4.0, Stateflow 4.0 and Real-Time Workshop 4.0 being introduced as part of the company's Release 12.

With these three major new products, control engineers and embedded systems designers can take an integrated, model-based approach to embedded systems design, rather than using the traditional method of writing specifications and coding software manually.

They can develop complex embedded systems designs, starting with the initial concept and taking them through to full deployment on the production target.

By adopting these tools, tests have demonstrated that weeks or even months can be eliminated from the overall process of designing embedded applications for the aerospace, automotive, telecommunications and industrial control industries.

Users have experienced a significant increase in the efficiency and reliability of their systems.

The new versions of Simulink, Stateflow, Real-Time Workshop and their extensions provide an interactive, graphical modelling environment that allows users to design, analyse and accurately simulate models of complex, large-scale systems.

Simulation is used to give a clear understanding of the way in which models behave, and to provide an "executable specification" of the system being designed.

Users can then automatically implement these models in real time, with supported rapid prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop environments.

Once an algorithm has been demonstrated through simulation or real-time prototyping, it is possible automatically to generate high-performance code for use in target embedded processors.

The new model-based design environment is the result of usability tests with more than 500 customers, which culminated in significant enhancements and extensions to The MathWorks' core products.

New functions have been added to support model-based design, increase usability, accommodate large systems modelling and ensure that automatically generated software code is reliable, accurate and efficient.

The new capabilities for model-based design give designers a better understanding of their models and greater ability to optimise them.

The new Simulink Performance Tools 1.0, which includes Simulink Accelerator, speeds model simulations significantly.

Other new features allow the user to measure simulation performance in a detailed way, allowing them to focus their resources effectively to produce highly tuned models.

These tools use the graphical nature of the design environment to enhance the powerful analysis capabilities of the product.

Additional support, provided by Real-Time Workshop 4.0, includes intellectual property protection for sharing designs with third parties.

Features include new model and library navigation capabilities, added model browser options and features for the management of model details in Simulink 4.0.

The Control System Toolbox 5.0 now features new analysis and design GUIs as well as performance analysis and gain tuning tools.

In large systems modelling, the trend is towards increasingly complex embedded control system designs that demand more extensive models.

The MathWorks has responded to this by adding an integrated finder that shows information and provides hyperlinks to the graphical models in Simulink 4.0 and Stateflow 4.0.

Stateflow also includes an extended graphical hierarchy in diagrams and multilevel transition connections.

The new Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder 1.0 and Stateflow Coder 4.0 automatically generate target-independent embeddable code that users can configure to run in existing target environments.

Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder can now handle files that are similar in size and speed to optimised hand-written code.

It preserves model symbol names, includes test capabilities for verifying the generated code and produces HTML code reports.

Fixed point and floating point code can be aimed at a variety of processors and operating systems, using the target templates provided.

Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder and Stateflow Coder meet customer requirements for flexible, readable code that can be inserted into the production process and also fits seamlessly with legacy code.

A particular benefit of The MathWorks' model-based design solution is that control engineers and embedded systems designers can spend more time investigating new design concepts and refining ideas rather than performing routine coding and debugging tasks.

Since models are debugged before software is written, errors can be detected much earlier in the development process.

Software code, documentation and test functions are translated directly from the model, so process errors are eliminated and productivity is increased.

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