Real-Time Workshop

A Next-Generation Development Tool

The MathWorks tools, including Simulink and Real-Time Workshop, are revolutionizing the way embedded systems are designed. Simulink is a very high-level language (VHLL) -- a next-generation programing language. A brief look at the history of dynamic and embedded system design methodologies reveals a steady progression toward higher-level design tools and processes:

• Design -> analog components: Before the introduction of microcontrollers, design was done on paper and realized using analog components.
• Design -> hand written assembly -> early microcontrollers: In the early microprocessor era, design was done on paper and realized by writing assembly code and placing it on microcontrollers. Today, very low-end applications still use assembly language, but advancements in Real-Time Workshop and C compiler technology are obsolescing such techniques.
• Design -> high-level language (HLL) -> object code -> microcontroller: The advent of efficient HLL compilers led to the realization of paper designs in languages such as C. HLL code, transformed to assembly language by a compiler, was then placed on a microcontroller. In the early days of high-level languages, programmers often inspected the machine-generated assembly code produced by compilers for correctness. Today, it is taken for granted that the assembly code is correct.
• Design -> modeling tool -> manual HLL coding -> object code -> microcontroller: When design tools such as Simulink appeared, designers were able to express system designs graphically and simulate them for correctness. While this process saved considerable time and improved performance, designs were still translated to C code manually before being placed on a microcontroller. This translation process was both time consuming and error prone.
• Design -> Simulink -> Real-Time Workshop (automatic code generation) -> object code -> microcontroller: With the addition of Real-Time Workshop, Simulink itself becomes a VHLL. Modeling constructs in Simulink are the basic elements of the language. Real-Time Workshop then compiles models to produce C code. This machine-generated code is produced quickly and correctly. The manual process of transforming designs to code has now been eliminated, yielding significant improvements in system design.

• The Simulink code generator included within Real-Time Workshop is a next-generation graphical block diagram compiler. Real-Time Workshop has capabilities beyond those of a typical HLL compiler. Generated code is highly readable and customizable. It is normally unnecessary to read the object code produced by the HLL compiler.. You can use Real-Time Workshop in a wide variety of applications, improving your design process.

Introduction

Key Features