2 Chapter 1 About MATLAB
®
use it to write a word-processing program. For large applications, such as operating
systems or design software, C++, JAVA, or FORTRAN would be the programs of
choice. (In fact, MATLAB
®
, which is a large application program, was originally
written in FORTRAN and later rewritten in C, a precursor of C++.) Usually, high-
level programs do not offer easy access to graphing—an application at which
MATLAB
®
excels. The primary area of overlap between MATLAB
®
and high-level
programs is “number crunching”—repetitive calculations or the processing of large
quantities of data. Both MATLAB
®
and high-level programs are good at processing
numbers. A “number-crunching” program is generally easier to write in MATLAB
®
,
but usually it will execute faster in C++ or FORTRAN. The one exception to this
rule is calculations involving matrices. MATLAB
®
is optimized for matrices. Thus, if
a problem can be formulated with a matrix solution, MATLAB
®
executes substan-
tially faster than a similar program in a high-level language.
MATLAB
®
is available in both a professional and a student version. The profes-
sional version is probably installed in your college or university computer laboratory,
but you may enjoy having the student version at home. MATLAB
®
is updated regu-
larly; this textbook is based on MATLAB
®
7.12. If you are using earlier versions such
as MATLAB
®
6, you may notice some minor differences between it and MATLAB
®
7.12. There are substantial differences in versions that predate MATLAB
®
5.5.
The standard installation of the professional version of MATLAB
®
is capable of
solving a wide variety of technical problems. Additional capability is available in the
form of function toolboxes. These toolboxes are purchased separately, and they
may or may not be available to you. You can nd a complete list of the MATLAB
®
product family at The MathWorks web site, www.mathworks.com .
1.2 STUDENT EDITION OF MATLAB
®
The professional and student editions of MATLAB
®
are very similar. Beginning stu-
dents probably won’t be able to tell the difference. Student editions are available for
Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux operating systems and can be purchased
from college bookstores or online from The MathWorks at www.mathworks.com .
The MathWorks packages its software in groups called releases , and MATLAB
®
7.12
is featured, along with other products, such as Simulink
®
7.7, in Release R2011a. New
versions are released every 6 months. The release number is the same for both the stu-
dent and professional edition, but the student version may lag the professional version
by several months. The student edition of R2011a includes the following features:
• Full MATLAB
®
• Simulink
®
, with the ability to build models with up to 1000 blocks (the profes-
sional version allows an unlimited number of blocks)
• Symbolic Math Toolbox
• Control System Toolbox
• Signal Processing Toolbox
• DSP System Toolbox
• Statistics Toolbox
• Optimization Toolbox
• Image Processing Toolbox
• Software manuals for both MATLAB
®
7 and Simulink
®
• A CD containing the full electronic documentation
• A single-user license, limited to students for use in their classwork (the profes-
sional version is licensed either singly or to a group)
KEY IDEA
MATLAB
®
is optimized for
matrix calculations
KEY IDEA
MATLAB
®
is regularly
updated