The MathWorks Unveils New Distributed Computing Toolbox for MATLAB and Simulink

The MathWorks today introduced its new Distributed Computing Toolbox, which enables engineers and scientists to execute MATLAB® algorithms and Simulink® models in a cluster of computers. The Distributed Computing Toolbox dramatically decreases the overall execution time of those applications in which the same algorithm or model is run with different input data. This latest innovation represents a significant step for The MathWorks in the emerging area of distributed computing.

The Distributed Computing Toolbox lets users divide this sample MATLAB application, plotting the performance of five equalizers, into several tasks, each of which performs the same calculation for different signal-to-noise ratios and is executed on a remote worker. Click on image to see enlarged view.

With the Distributed Computing Toolbox, MATLAB and Simulink users can now perform intensive computations with large data sets previously unattainable on a single computer. In addition, users will be able to control the complete distributed computing process via a standard function-based or object-based interface in the MATLAB environment.

“The Distributed Computing Toolbox is a much anticipated product that will enable us to significantly decrease our time-to-solution and increase our productivity,” said Ashok Krishnamurthy, director of research and scientific development at the Ohio Supercomputer Center. “Now, we can simultaneously execute both our MATLAB and Simulink applications in a multi-processor environment using the Distributed Computing Toolbox.”

Engineers, scientists, and researchers can employ the Distributed Computing Toolbox to divide algorithms into independent tasks. The MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine (available as a separate product) evaluates these tasks on remote MATLAB sessions and makes the results available to the original MATLAB session.

“This technology is a ground-breaking step to increase the productivity of engineers through distributed computing,” said Silvina Grad-Freilich, distributing computing product manager, The MathWorks. “With the release of MATLAB 7 earlier this year, along with our 64-bit platform support that was also announced today, our customers gained powerful capabilities for managing and analyzing larger data sets. The Distributed Computing Toolbox builds on these advancements and reinforces our commitment to enable customers to solve computationally intensive problems that run on large data sets.”