Newsletters August 2007

August 2007

Wow, can you believe how this year has flown? We seem to say the same thing every year, but every year the time seems to pass even faster. In this, the third edition of the newsletter for this year, we have assembled a wide range of information including how to use Frame-Based processing to speed up Signal Processing models, tools for verifying embedded source code, the availability of updated Simulink modelling guidelines and photos of the OPTI-NUM solutions team building a house for Habitat for Humanity.

As always, you will also find information on our upcoming seminars, training courses, and Webinars hosted by The MathWorks. We value your feedback, so please contact us with any queries and/or suggestions.

The OPTI-NUM solutions team.

Technical Articles

Frame-based operations using the Signal Processing Blockset

 

The Signal Processing Blockset extends the Simulink® environment with efficient frame-based processing and blocks for designing, implementing, and verifying signal processing systems. The blockset enables you to model streaming data and multirate systems in communications, audio/video, digital control, radar/sonar, consumer and medical electronics, and other numerically intensive application areas.

Most real-time signal processing systems optimize throughput rates by processing data in "batch" or "frame-based" mode. A frame is a collection of consecutive samples that have been stored in a single vector. If a mathematical formula, or algorithm, is frame-based, it can operate on several samples at once instead of on only one sample at a time. By propagating multisample frames instead of the individual signal samples, the signal processing system can take advantage of the speed of signal processing algorithm execution, while simultaneously reducing the demands placed on the data acquisition (DAQ) hardware.

Benefits of Frame-Based Processing

Frame-based processing is an established method of accelerating both real-time systems and simulations.

 

Accelerating Real-Time Systems

Frame-based data is a common format in real-time systems. Data acquisition hardware often operates by accumulating a large number of signal samples at a high rate, and propagating these samples to the real-time system as a block of data. This maximizes the efficiency of the system by distributing the fixed process overhead across many samples; the "fast" data acquisition is suspended by "slow" interrupt processes after each frame is acquired, rather than after each individual sample.

Accelerating Simulations

The simulation of your model also benefits from frame-based processing. In this case, it is the overhead of block-to-block communications that is reduced by propagating frames rather than individual samples.
You can find out more about frame-based processing with the Signal Processing Blockset here.

 

Announcements

OPTI-NUM solutions supports Habitat for Humanity

In June this year OPTI-NUM solutions staff gave their time, energy and sweat to help Habitat for Humanity South Africa build a house in Protea West, Soweto. Since 1996, Habitat for Humanity South Africa has built almost 1500 houses in the Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng/North West provinces, providing shelter for 7500 people across the country. OPTI-NUM solutions is proud to have helped in a small way.

The entire OPTI-NUM solutions team contributed significant effort to building one of those homes. When we arrived in the morning, the house had half of the outside wall built, by the time we left, with muscles aching and new respect for builders and physical labourers, the outside walls were roof high and the inside walls nearly complete.




Through hard work and team efforts, we helped each other to mix, carry, measure, and build walls and dreams.

On the right is an almost-finished home that will be cherished by the home-owner, whose first house was made possible with the help of OPTI-NUM solutions staff.

PolySpace™ Embedded Software Verification

Earlier this year, The MathWorks announced that it had acquired PolySpace Technologies, a leading developer of embedded system code verification tools. These tools were recently added to The MathWorks tool set and will therefore be sold and supported by OPTI-NUM solutions in Southern Africa.

PolySpace™ products verify C, C++, and Ada code for embedded applications by detecting run-time errors before code is compiled and executed. This advanced verification technology uses formal methods not only to detect errors, but to prove mathematically that certain classes of run-time errors do not exist.

You can use these tools on hand-written code, or code generated automatically from Model-Based Design tools. For automatically generated code, PolySpace Link products trace results back to models to help you correct design errors.

User Resources

Version 2 of Simulink and Stateflow modelling style guidelines released

In the same way that companies develop coding standards to improve the readability of their code, allowing engineers to understand new code more quickly and thoroughly and improve software maintainability, companies should establish modelling standards to deal with the complexities associated with managing large-scale Simulink and Stateflow models.

The MathWorks Automotive Advisory Board (MAAB) was established to coordinate feature requests from major automotive OEMs and suppliers. MAAB meetings focus on MathWorks controls, simulation, and code generation products including Simulink®, Stateflow®, and Real-Time Workshop®. An important output of the MAAB has been a set of Simulink and Stateflow modelling guidelines.

Version 2 of the MAAB modelling style guidelines have just been released and are suitable for all Simulink and Stateflow models. These guidelines could be adopted as is by your company or used as a starting point for developing your own internal modelling standards.

On a related note, the June 2007 issue of News and Notes contains an article which discusses how you can use the Model Advisor feature in Simulink to automate checking of your modelling standards.

How to Integrate Eclipse into the Real Time Workshop build environment

Eclipse is a popular open source development platform. Michael Burke, Principal Workflow engineer for The MathWorks has recently submitted a presentation titled “How to integrate Eclipse into the Real Time Workshop build environment” to MATLAB Central. In this presentation he describes the steps required to install the Eclipse IDE and cygwin tools and use these together with code generated by Real Time Workshop.

Featured User Story

Doheny Eye Institute Develops Next-Generation Retinal Prosthesis with MathWorks Tools

One of the first symptoms of retinitis pigmentosa is night vision loss. As the condition worsens, peripheral vision is gradually lost, until there is only a single point of light—or none at all. Researchers at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California (USC) are giving people with this genetic eye condition hope for restored sight.

Using MathWorks tools, Doheny Eye Institute and its industrial partner Second Sight Medical Products, Inc. are developing a second-generation retinal prosthesis that stimulates nerve cells. The system includes an external camera and real-time software to acquire, process, and convert images into stimulus signals that are delivered to retinal nerve cells through an implanted electronic chip.

Read the full user story.

View featured user stories.

Events

Upcoming Training Courses

 

Take advantage of our discounts on multiple training bookings and save on MATLAB and Simulink training! If you purchase more for than 5 days of training, you become eligible for a discount, which increases with the number of training days you purchase. If you are a student or lecturer then you can also receive an additional academic discount.

OPTI-NUM solutions will be holding the following training courses in September and October in Johannesburg:

14 September 2010	Statistical Methods in MATLAB
15 September 2010	Advanced MATLAB Programming Techniques
16 September 2010	MATLAB for Building Graphical User Interfaces

View our training schedule.

Featured Course: Simulink for Dynamic System Modelling

Simulink for Dynamic System Modelling targets engineers who are new to system and algorithm modelling and design validation in the Simulink environment. It applies basic modelling techniques and tools to developing Simulink block diagrams, including:

* Modelling continuous-time, single- and multirate discrete-time, and hybrid systems
* Understanding model hierarchy
* Executing a condition-based system
* Automating model simulations
* Developing custom blocks and libraries

Prerequisites: A working knowledge of MATLAB

If you would like to book your place on one of OPTI-NUM solutions training courses, or would like more information about on-site training courses, please contact the sales team on (011) 325 6238 or training@optinum.co.za.

Upcoming Seminars

07 September 2010	Pretoria	Defence Day - Model-Based Design for High Integrity Systems
06 October 2010	Johannesburg	Algorithm Development with MATLAB for C and C++ Programmers

 

View all upcoming events.

Upcoming Webinars

07 September 2010	Speeding Up MATLAB Applications
09 September 2010	Image Acquisition and Processing Using GigE Vision Cameras with MATLAB
14 September 2010	Analyze, Model and Simulate Energy Risk with MATLAB – a SAP Integration at RWE

 

View all upcoming events.