Modelling and simulation software

The MathWorks has announced Release 2009a (R2009a) of its MATLAB, Simulink and PolySpace product families. R2009a includes extended support for multicore and multiprocessor systems, two new products, new features in MATLAB and Simulink, and enhancements to more than 90 other MathWorks products.

The multicore/multiprocessor capabilities in R2009a now include multithreaded implementations of FFT and other core functions in MATLAB, plus multicore-accelerated Simulink code generation and PolySpace code verification. In addition, to take advantage of today’s most advanced systems, Parallel Computing Toolbox now enables a user to distribute computations on up to eight MATLAB sessions on a user’s desktop. 

The two products added to R2009a are Vehicle Network Toolbox, which enables a direct connection between MATLAB and CAN bus networks for analysis and testing, and Simulink Design Optimization, which enables Simulink users to estimate and tune model parameters using numeric optimisation.

 Other highlights of R2009a include the Curve Fitting Toolbox, with support for surface fitting, including a new graphical user interface; Real-Time Workshop and Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder, enabling users to tailor the generated code by specifying high-level objectives such as efficiency or traceability; Symbolic Math Toolbox, for automatic generation of Simulink blocks from symbolic math expressions, and for equation-based first-principles modelling; and SimBiology, with support for pharmacokinetic modelling, plus state-of-the-art nonlinear mixed-effects models for parameter estimation.