MATLAB-to-C tool get major upgrade

Palo Alto, CA — Catalytic today announced the Catalytic Function Library, a major upgrade for its MATLAB-to-C synthesis tool MCS. The Catalytic Function Library lets developers generate C code for over 300 MATLAB functions, including functions from the signal processing, communications, imaging, and math toolboxes.

Catalytic announced MCS exactly one year ago. The initial release of the MATLAB-to-C tool focused on a core set of 141 MATLAB functions. In this respect, the initial release of MCS was similar to the Embedded MATLAB language subset available from The MathWorks. Like MCS, Embedded MATLAB lets developers generate C code from M code. However, the two approaches serve two fundamentally different goals: Embedded MATLAB is intended to be used as a high-level, general-purpose development language, and it targets a broad array of embedded systems. In contrast, MCS focuses on translating algorithms from MATLAB to C, and it specifically targets signal processing applications.

With the release of the Catalytic Function Library, the distinction between MCS and Embedded MATLAB comes into sharper contrast, as the Catalytic Function Library supports many algorithm-oriented functions not available in Embedded MATLAB. For example, the Catalytic Function Library supports a number of FFT functions that are not supported in Embedded MATLAB.

Perhaps more importantly, the new library supports a number of complicated functions such as "imopen," a function that morphologically opens an image. According to Catalytic, translating one of these complicated functions can take as long as six weeks. By automating this translation process, the Catalytic Function Library promises to dramatically slash development time. According to Cadence, an early customer for the library, "Tapping into the large set of functions supported by the Catalytic Function Library saved us… …development time and testing."

With the addition of the Catalytic Function Library, MCS has become a powerful tool for converting MATLAB algorithms to C. This conversion is a critical for the development of many signal processing applications, but this translation process is full of pitfalls. Thus, the Catalytic Function Library is likely to be a highly attractive product for signal processing developers.

The Catalytic Function Library is available now. Pricing is subscription-based, and starts at $5,000 per year. Subscriptions include quarterly updates to the library. For more information visit http://www.catalyticinc.com/products/products_funclib.htm.

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