Seth on Simulink

March 31st, 2009

Parallel Computing with Simulink: Model Reference Builds

Have you seen the MATLAB Channel on YouTube??  I like the way you can express an idea using video, describe how things work, and then watch it work.  That is why I asked my friend Doug to help me make a video this week. (Thanks Doug! Check out Doug’s MATLAB Video Tutorials.)

The topic today is the Simulink R2009a feature for Parallel Model Reference builds.   Model reference blocks run in normal (interpreted) mode or accelerated mode.  Simulink has to generate SimTargets for the accelerated reference models during update diagram.  In R2009a you can use the Parallel Computing Toolbox to start a pool of local MATLAB workers and distribute the generation of the SimTargets across the available cores on your system.  Model Reference parallel build also speeds up Real-Time Workshop code generation.  All you need to distribute your build across all the cores on your multi-core machine is to start a local pool of MATLAB workers:

>> matlabpool

Starting matlabpool using the 'local' configuration ... connected to 4 labs.

Watch the video.  Try it out.  Leave a comment below and tell me how it worked.

Updated the video player which was broken on IE.
Files used in this video are available from the File Exchange here

One Response to “Parallel Computing with Simulink: Model Reference Builds”

  1. Dan replied on :

    Very nice video. I liked how you brought up the window task manager performance consistently to demonstrate the workings of the PCT toolbox. Hope to see more great videos like this.

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Seth Popinchalk is an Application Engineer for The MathWorks. He writes here about Simulink and other MathWorks tools used in Model-Based Design.
  • wei: @Ashish, I agree with your observation on compiler optimization but fail to see why Han’s code would be...
  • Ashish Sadanandan: Han, Sorry for butting in with a reply, but the modification to the for-loop you’ve...
  • arun kumar: dear seth i have been involved in developing and simulating asynchronous systems for my VLSI lab. in...
  • Han Geerligs: Hi Aarti, thanks for providing the example! I was just wondering why the lines model_YDim = model_XDim;...
  • Seth: @Han - Aarti’s response is in a post titled Generated Code for Variable Size Signals.
  • garla: what is advantage of exporting the bus object with the format as “cell” and “object” ....
  • J.r: @ Guy - Example sent to your account. Thank you.
  • Guy: @ J.r - The ability for atomic subsystems and Model Reference to remove the “fake algebraic loop”...
  • J.r: Sorry to hit an old thread, but this seems like the best place to solicit help on this topic. Is there supposed...
  • Bindu: please tell me how can i get the sampling time used in simulation

These postings are the author's and don't necessarily represent the opinions of The MathWorks.