In today’s world we find most of the devices with an embedded system inside. Embedded system is a combination of computer hardware and software. Any embedded product development undergoes a wide range of processes like designing the architecture, developing the software program, integrating controller or processors and other devices at peripherals, testing the functionalities etc. In the earlier days the designing process approach was to first build, design and plant it. These may end with design errors, some requirements missing, some modifications maybe needed etc. so it took a longer development time and higher development costs.

Today’s products are more complex due to the high demand for devices to be compact, durable, and easy to maintain them. These require the development of a complex control system. To manage the complexity now we use model-based design process, which basically means throughout your design process all specifications are turned into models and simulations to test a design early on which helps you make the right decision and in a faster way to obtain good results.

What is model based development?

Designing a model through simulation where we can do a lot of iteration and optimization of the result in the early stage of your design process before implementing it on hardware.

Why model based development?

Requirements are fully tested during the development phase, we can say test early, fail early and fix early which reduces reworks and requirement changes can be addressed sooner, hence reducing test phase time & cost. Model Based Development (MBD) performs verification and validation through testing in the simulation environment. Hence model-based design is an efficient method to use for designing complex embedded systems. 

Altair Embed

Altair Embed formerly known as VisSim Embedded is a visual environment for the model-based design of embedded systems. Its highly efficient diagram-to-code capability shortens the development time and increases product quality.

With Altair Embed, you can quickly develop virtual prototypes of any dynamic system. Models are built by simply sliding blocks into the work area and wiring them together with the mouse. Embed automatically converts the control diagrams into C-code ready to be downloaded to the target hardware. Which is one of the important key features of embed, i.e. No Hand-Coding Required! Embed’s code generator allows you to easily try out new algorithms on target hardware without the need for hand-coding. The generated C-code is recognized for its efficiency with respect to memory requirements and runtime.

Altair Embed supports the entire MBD process:

• Automatic efficient C Code Generation from block diagram models
• Compile, Link, Download, & Execute C Code on target microcontroller in 3 easy steps
• Real-Time Operating System allowing control and background threads
• Interactive data exchange between the Target & PC Host at the target execution rate
• Full support for Texas Instruments C2000 microcontroller family and others