Natick, Mass. -- The MathWorks today released Simulink Fixed Point 6, a major upgrade to its fixed-point tool. The new version of Simulink Fixed Point supports 128-bit word widths, up from a maximum of 32 bits in previous releases. The upgrade makes the tool far more useful for fixed-point code development because most DSPs have accumulators and other registers with widths in excess of 32 bits. Simulink Fixed Point 6 also provides an enhanced advisor that guides the engineer through the float-point to fixed-point conversion process.

With Simulink Fixed Point 6, the designer specifies the characteristics of the target fixed-point hardware, such as the size of int and long variables. The tool comes pre-configured with the characteristics of common processors such as Analog Devices and Texas Instruments DSPs. After the target characteristics have been set, the tool walks the designer through the fixed-to-float conversion process, performing a variety of tests to ensure that the design can be implemented on the target hardware.

Simulink Fixed Point 6 can pull the floating-point design from a variety of sources, including Simulink, Stateflow, Embedded MATLAB, and the Signal Processing, and Video and Image Processing blocksets. The resulting fixed-point design can be used with with the Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder to generate bit-accurate production code for DSPs and MCUs, or to generate bit-accurate RTL.

Simulink Fixed Point 6 is available immediately for the Microsoft Windows, Solaris, Linux, and Macintosh platforms. U.S. list prices start at $1,000. For further information, see www.mathworks.com/products/simfixed/.

Kenton Williston has been writing about DSP technology and business trends since 2001. Prior to running the DSP DesignLine, he was the editor and the senior contributor for Inside DSP. He is an author of numerous technology reports, including the Buyer's Guide to DSP Processors. Kenton is a popular presenter at the Embedded Systems Conference and other venues, and he has advised the leading DSP semiconductor firms on their marketing and product-planning strategies. You can contact him at kentonwilliston@yahoo.com.