Real-Time Workshop

Adding Device Driver Blocks

The real-time program communicates with the I/O devices installed in the VxWorks target chassis via a set of device drivers. These device drivers contain the necessary code that runs on the target processor for interfacing to specific I/O devices.

To make device drivers easy to use, they are implemented as Simulink S-functions using C code MEX-files. This means you can connect them to your model like any other block and the code generator automatically includes a call to the block's C code in the generated code.

You can also inline S-functions via the Target Language Compiler. Inlining allows you to restrict function calls to only those that are necessary for the S-function. This can greatly increase the efficiency of the S-function. For more information about inlining S-functions, see Writing S-Functions and the Target Language Compiler Reference Guide.

You can have multiple instances of device driver blocks in your model. See Targeting Real-Time Systems for more information about creating device drivers.

Implementation Overview

Configuring the Template Makefile