Support of MATLAB R2014a with dSPACE Release 2014-A

At release time dSPACE Release 2014-A only supported MATLAB R2014a unofficially. By now dSPACE Release 2014-A has subsequently been qualified for the use with MATLAB R2014a

To achieve full compatibility, patches must be installed.

See details

Furthermore the information below is still valid, in particular the usage of the revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b command.

Technical background

With the MATLAB/Simulink R2014a release, code generation by Simulink Coder has changed and therefore also the generation of variable descriptions (TRC files) by RTI, ConfigurationDesk and VEOS had to be modified accordingly. These changes could not fully be taken into account in dSPACE Release 2014-A, and, as a consequence, dSPACE Release 2014-A does not officially support MATLAB R2014a.

Furthermore dSPACE does not grant product support (by support and development department) for this combination by default.

However, Mathworks has provided to us a technical solution in terms of a specific MATLAB command to enable the old code and TRC file generation behavior. Therefore dSPACE Release 2014-A is able to unofficially support MATLAB R2014a, that means: 

• New features of MATLAB Simulink and Simulink Coder of MATLAB R2014a are not supported
• For enabling the compatible code generation behavior a specific MATLAB command has to be set (see details below)
• A warning about missing compatibility will be displayed by dSPACE installation if it detects MATLAB R2014a. This warning can be omitted.
• dSPACE performed only a shortened quality assurance testing process between MATLAB R2014a and dSPACE Release 2014-A because of limited time between the MATLAB and dSPACE release dates.
• dSPACE reserves the right to limit or decline product support for this combination.

With dSPACE Release 2014-B and newer dSPACE plans to grant official support for MATLAB R2014a. The use of the MATLAB command revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b will still be necessary.

Combining MATLAB R2014a with dSPACE Release 2014-A

Using dSPACE Release 2014-A in combination with MATLAB R2014a requires to use the command revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b. This command enables the Simulink Coder behavior and dSPACE TRC file generation in MATLAB R2014a similar to that in MATLAB R2013b and before.
The command revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b is shipped as part of the Simulink Coder product with MATLAB R2014a. For more details see the Simulink Coder release notes here:

http://www.mathworks.de/de/help/rtw/release-notes.html (Mathworks Account required).

Handling of command revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b

If you intend to work with MATLAB R2014a and dSPACE Release 2014-A, you must ensure to run the command revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b before using RTI, ConfigurationDesk or VEOS. For this, you have the following options:

• Run the command manually after MATLAB started, or
• add a call to your startup.m script (see MATLAB documentation for more details on the startup.m script), or
• add a call to your dsstartup.m script (see dSPACE documentation for more details on the dsstartup.m script).

Qualification of using command revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b for MATLAB R2014a / dSPACE Release 2014-A

For RTI, ConfigurationDesk and VEOS, existing and relevant automated regression tests have been run under R2014a and with the command revertInlineParametersOffToR2013b being applied. As a result, no problems have been observed in these tests. Due to release timeline constraints there were some restrictions a) with respect to execution of manual tests and b) with respect to the level of detail that could be realized for RTI, ConfigurationDesk and VEOS compatibility analysis of Simulink or Simulink Coder Features new with R2014a. For these reasons we cannot fully exclude that you encounter issues, and for the same reason the installation software displays a warning, if it detects R2014a. Nevertheless we are confident that most existing RTI and ConfigurationDesk models (i.e. not using new R2014a features) should work fine with R2014a and Release 2014-A.

List of known issues

The following is a list of known issues as of March, 27th 2014:

• In MATLAB R2014a the Bus Selector block has been virtualized in Simulink. Therefore, if the In-Port is connected to a non-virtual bus, the TRC file entries for signals originating from the Out-Ports of Bus Selector blocks point to the entire incoming bus signal. As a result layouts and scripts accessing signals, which originate from the Out-Ports of Bus Selector blocks need to be adjusted.
• With MATLAB R2014a 64bit the Rapid Accelerator mode in conjunction with the MotionDesk Blockset (MDBS) is not operational. Normal mode and Accelerator mode are not affected.
• In MATLAB R2014a using non-virtual Simulink buses in referenced models can cause an error during code compilation.
• MATLAB R2014a introduced the configuration of models using separate data dictionaries. This is not supported by RTI, ConfigurationDesk and VEOS.

Current plans of MATLAB R2014a support in dSPACE Release 2014-B and beyond

At the moment we have an ongoing discussion with The MathWorks about our future road maps concerning MATLAB support in dSPACE releases. What we can state up to now:

• Beyond support for MATLAB R2014a in dSPACE Release 2014-A as described above, we plan to also support old TRC file generation for MATLAB R2014a and MATLAB R2014b with dSPACE Release 2014-B.
• When and how we will natively support the new code generation behavior is currently in discussion and details will be published as soon as possible.