| Version 3.4 (R2008a) xPC Target™ Release Notes | |
This table summarizes what's new in Version 3.4 (R2008a):
New Features and Changes | Version Compatibility Considerations | Fixed Bugs and Known Problems | Related Documentation at Web Site |
|---|---|---|---|
Yes | Yes—Details labeled as Compatibility Considerations, below. See also Summary | Bug
Reports | No |
New features and changes introduced in this version are
xPC Target Now Supports Booting Target PCs Within a Dedicated Network
xPC Target Now Supports Multidimensional Signals and Parameters
"What's This?" Context-Sensitive Help Available for Simulink Configuration Parameters Dialog
You can now boot a target PC from a host PC within a dedicated network. In previous releases, you could only boot a target PC with a target boot disk. See xPC Target Boot Options in the xPC Target Getting Started Guide.
Associated with this feature, the xpcnetboot function was added. This function creates the xPC Target kernel to boot target PC over dedicated network.
xPC Target Explorer has the following enhancements:
You can now drag a prebuilt target application, DLM, to a target PC icon. If a connection does not already exist, xPC Target Explorer prompts you to create a connection to that target PC. See Downloading and Running Target Applications on a Target PC in the xPC Target Getting Started Guide.
You can now start xPC Target Explorer from the Simulink model window (Tools > Real-Time Workshop > xPC Target Explorer).
If a scope does not exist, you can now drag a signal to a Host Scope, Target Scope, or File Scope icon to create a scope of that type in xPC Target Explorer. See Adding Signals to Scopes in the xPC Target User's Guide.
You can now change the refresh rate of xPC Target Explorer. See Menu Bar and Toolbar Contents and Shortcut Keys in the xPC Target Getting Started Guide.
The xPC Target Explorer PCI Devices node now displays the subsystem vendor and device IDs. In previous releases, this node displayed only system vendor and device IDs.
The following are changes to the xPC Target options pane of the Simulink Configuration Parameters dialog box.
New check box, Use default communication timeout, and a new associated text entry field, Specify the communication timeout in seconds. See xPC Target Options in the xPC Target Getting Started Guide.
New IRQ options 3 and 4 available for the Real-time interrupt source parameter.
The interface between the xPC Target software and Vector CANape® software has been enhanced to support the Vector CANape TCP communication layer. This enhancement enables xPC Target to acquire signal data at the base sample rate of the model. If you have existing models that use earlier Vector CANape solutions, they should continue to be valid. See Vector CANape Support in the xPC Target I/O Reference.
xPC Target now supports the logging and monitoring of multidimensional signals and the tuning of multidimensional parameters. In previous releases, the xPC Target software ignored multidimensional signals and parameters. If a target application contains a multidimensional signal or parameter:
The xPC Target Explorer Model Hierarchy now displays signals and parameters in column-major format. See Signals and Parameters in the xPC Target User's Guide.
The xPC Target Driver Authoring Tool has been added to help with the creation of custom xPC Target device drivers. See Creating Custom Drivers Using the xPC Target Driver Authoring Tool in the xPC Target Device Drivers Guide.
The following limitations no longer apply to Simulink external mode:
You can now add scopes of type host to the system. In previous releases, you could add scopes of only type target or file to the system when updating data to Simulink external mode.
xPC Target can now upload data to more than 10 Simulink scopes. In previous releases, xPC Target could upload up to 10 Simulink scopes.
Each Simulink scope can now upload more than the first 10 input signals from the target PC. In previous releases, each Simulink scope could upload only the first 10 input signals from the target PC.
Arbitrarily-sized target application (DLM) files can now be loaded in BootFloppy and DOSLoader modes. These modes ignore the MaxModelSize setting.
For StandAlone mode, you still must specify the target application size.
The getxpcpci function has a new verbose option. This option includes the base address register information in the PCI device display. This information is useful if you to want to use a PCI-based parallel port.
The xPC Target product now supports the Intel® Visual Fortran 9.1 compiler for the incorporation of Fortran code into Simulink models. See Incorporating Fortran Code into the xPC Target Environment in the xPC Target User's Guide for details.
The xPC Target product no longer supports the Intel Visual Fortran 9.0 and Compaq® Visual Fortran Compiler Version 6.5 or later compilers.
xPC Target product does not support Open Watcom 1.7. Open Watcom 1.3 continues to be supported.
The xPC Target software no longer supports the use of a mouse on the target PC. The Target mouse field has been removed from the xPC Target Explorer Appearance Component pane.
The block mask and documentation have been updated for the following Condor Engineering ARINC blocks:
Compatibility Considerations. If you have existing models that contain these blocks, you should reevaluate the configuration parameters with regard to the way the blocks work with binary data.
The ASCII Decode V2 block has been added to the RS232 library to provide improved performance over the ASCII Decode block. The original ASCII Decode block will continue to be available.
The xPC Target RS232 library has been reorganized as follows:
The drivers in Conventional drivers (Obsolete) have been moved to the Obsolete category.
The drivers in V1.0 compatible have been moved to the Obsolete V 1.0 category.
Compatibility Considerations. xPC Target has obsoleted the counter blocks for the following boards. The xPC Target block library continues to support the noncounter blocks for these boards.
You can still access these driver blocks by typing the command xpcobsoletelib at the MATLAB Command Window. Existing models that use these drivers will still work. However, their support is not guaranteed for future releases. Do not use these driver blocks in new models. Instead, consider the following alternative boards:
The following demos were updated in this release to use parallel ports, instead of Measurement Computing PCI-CTR05 boards, as interrupt sources.
The following demos were updated in this release to improve clarity:
The xPC Target Device Drivers Guide is now part of the xPC Target documentation set in the MATLAB Help browser.
If you upgrade your xPC Target software from a previous version, you must recreate the target boot disk and you must rebuild your xPC Target applications. See Booting Target PCs from Boot Floppy Disk in xPC Target Getting Started Guide.
R2008a introduces "What's This?" context-sensitive help for parameters that appear in the Simulink Configuration Parameters dialog. This feature provides quick access to a detailed description of the parameters, saving you the time it would take to find the information in the Help browser.
To use the "What's This?" help, do the following:
Place your cursor over the label of a parameter.
Right-click. A What's This? context menu appears.
For example, the following figure shows the What's This? context menu appearing after a right-click on the Start time parameter in the Solver pane.
Click What's This? A context-sensitive help window appears showing a description of the parameter.
| Version 4.0 (R2008b) xPC Target | Version 3.3 (R2007b) xPC Target | |
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