MathWorks announces release 2017a of MATLAB and Simulink

Natick, MA. MathWorks has introduced Release 2017a (R2017a) with a range of new capabilities in MATLAB and Simulink. R2017a includes a new product, called Automated Driving System Toolbox, which helps design, simulate, and test ADAS and autonomous driving systems. R2017a also includes updates and bug fixes to 86 other products.

MATLAB product family updates include the following new features:

• MATLAB

o   interactive figure updates in the Live Editor, including title, labels, legend, and other annotations, as well as the ability to copy live script outputs to other applications​;

o   heatmap chart functions for visualizing data; and

o   ​more functions for operating on tall arrays, including ismember, sort, conv, and moving statistics functions.​​​​​

• Econometrics Toolbox

o   Bayesian linear regression model for analyzing the relationship between a response and a set of predictor variables and

o   vector autoregressive model for analyzing multivariate time series data, including exogenous predictors.

• MATLAB Production Server

o   web-based server management dashboard for IT configuration and control.

• Neural Network Toolbox

o   deep learning algorithms for training convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for regression tasks using multiple GPUs on PCs, on clusters, and in the cloud;

o   deep-learning visualization for the features a CNN model has learned using image optimization; and

o   functions for transferring weights from pretrained CNN models (AlexNet, VGG-16 and VGG-19) and models from Caffe Model Zoo.

• Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox

o   Regression Learner app for training regression models using supervised machine learning and

o   tall array algorithms for support vector machine (SVM) and Naïve Bayes classification, bagged decision trees, and lasso regression.

• Computer Vision System Toolbox

o   deep learning for detecting objects using Fast R-CNN and Faster R-CNN.

• Automated Driving System Toolbox

o   a new product for designing, simulating, and testing ADAS and autonomous driving systems.

Simulink product family updates include the following features:

• Simulink

o   Simulink Project upgrade for easily updating all files in a project to the latest release;

o   parsim command for directly running multiple parallel simulations;

o   streaming for large input signals from MAT files without loading the data into memory;

o   reduced bus wiring to quickly group signals as buses and automatically create bus element ports for fewer signal lines between and within subsystems; and

o   automatic port creation for adding inports and outports to blocks when routing signals

• Simscape Multibody

o   run-time parameters for speeding up simulation tasks and modifying component parameter values without regenerating C code, and

o   Onshape CAD import for using cloud-based CAD assemblies in multibody simulation.

Signal Processing and Communications updates include these features:

• Antenna Toolbox

o   Antenna Designer app for interactively choosing and analyzing antennas with desired characteristics.​

• ​Communications System Toolbox

o   modeling and simulation for spatially-defined MIMO channels operating in multipath and scattering propagation scenarios.

• LTE System Toolbox

o   MATLAB functions for simulating 3GPP 5G new radio technologies, and

o   Sidelink Receive functionality for link-level simulation of LTE-A ProSe direct communications for public safety and vehicular communication applications.

• WLAN System Toolbox

o   support for generating IEEE 802.11ad compliant waveforms.

Code Generation Updates Include these features:

• Embedded Coder

o   cross-release code integration for reusing model reference code generated from previous releases.

• Simulink Coder

o   Dynadmic memory support for MATLAB Function block simulation and code generation.

• HDL Coder

o   HDL code generation from IEEE standard single-precision floating-point operations.

• HDL Verifier

o   support for probing and capturing internal FPGA signals to analyze in MATLAB or Simulink.

Verification and Validation updates include these features:

• Polyspace Bug Finder

o   code-checking for MISRA C:2012 Amendment 1 and new cryptography routines.

• Simulink Verification and Validation

o   clone-detection improvements for refactoring repeating library patterns and subsystem clones, and

o   DOORS Next Generation support for linking and tracing model elements to requirements in DOORS Next Generation.

• ​Simulink Design Verifier

o   visualization of the effect of state activity timing on slicer highlighting for simulations.

• Simulink Code Inspector

o   support for loop and cyclic operations in MATLAB, Simulink, and Stateflow.

R2017a is available immediately worldwide. For more information, see “R2017a Highlights.”