NI Announces MATRIXx 8.0

By DE Editors

May 16, 2007 

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

Remember the old song that went, “What a long strange trip it’s been?” You could say that about model-based design, simulation, and embedded code generator MATRIXx. For a couple of decades, MATRIXx has been the heavyweight development platform of choice for engineers, scientists, researchers, and designers when they wrestled with large projects like those in aerospace or automotive. But then MATRIXx became ensnared in, um, a long strange trip, leaving it suspended like a fly in amber for a bunch of years.

In 2003, National Instruments acquired MATRIXx, and I’ve been bugging them about it since. Basically, they kept telling me that the core of MATRIXx remained world class, but its interface, underlying transport mechanisms, and other components we take for granted today remained in the mid 1990s. And all along, they’ve been chugging away at it.

Still, I’ve been waiting for this day to come.

NI has finally unleashed MATRIXx 8.0. MATRIXx 8.0 is one of those critical-mass releases where all the heavy work from the previous updates and the R&D folks come together. MATRIXx 8.0 has a brand smacking new interface that works like 2007 software should work. It has a new project-based development environment, search and model comparison utilities, compatibility with 7.1.x catalogs and files, and lots of enhancements.

If the trip you’re on includes stuff like designing dynamic control systems, building interactive simulations, modeling, and simulating complex system models, check out today’s Pick of the Week write-up from the link to the right, or just go directly to NI’s MATRIXx page. Check out the videos and white papers there. You can even sign up for an evaluation.

Thanks, Pal. — Lockwood.

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editorial Director, Desktop Engineering

NI Announces MATRIXx 8.0

Version offers project-based development environment to manage large, complex projects.
National Instruments (Austin, TX) has announced the release of version 8.0 of MATRIXx, its software suite for model-based design, simulation, and embedded code generation. MATRIXx 8.0 introduces a project-based development environment to help engineers better manage large projects.

MATRIXx 8.0’s new project-based development environment provides several organizational tools to handle large projects. You can now have a data dictionary to manage information associated with a project as well as a search utility to help navigate through models. The project-based environment also features help resources and a new model comparison utility to provide hierarchical differencing between SuperBlocks.    

GibbsCAM 2008

In version 8.0, the MATRIXx user interface has been revamped to align with standard Windows conventions and such features as right-click, integrated help menus, drag-and-drop, and double-click.

MATRIXx 8.0 offers backward and forward compatibility with version 7.1.x catalogs and files. You can import 7.1.x catalogs and files into version 8.0 without any conversions, and you can use applications created in MATRIXx 8.0 in the MATRIXx 7.1 environment. In addition, the simulator code, Xmath algorithms, and numeric libraries remain unchanged between versions, assuring you of the same results if you upgrade to version 8.0.

For more information about MATRIXx 8.0, including an evaluation, video demonstration, and white papers, click here.