The Matlab Engine

The Matlab Engine

This is a piece of IP which is free and can be readily implemented in a fabric or FPGA. Even better, it could be already included; the same way than a Cortex core is included in a high end Altera FPGA.
Its purpose is to serve as an additional Cop to the target Cop.

For every pieces of m-code which could not be mapped, translated or compiled, the COP calls the
Matlab Engine.
Needless to say, it does not exist today.

Background                                                                                                                                  

In 2005, when Catalytic Matlab Accelerator/Compiler could not tackle an exotic Matlab construct, it would make "a call into Matlab". The reason is simple, Catalytic was an add-on to Matlab so we could always use its resources as needed. The big drawback was very poor performances since Matlab interprets the code.
Also since the last century The Mathworks offers a different type of Matlab engine called the MCR.
Oddly enough, the concept is simple to understand. You develop a demo in Matlab. How to show it to customers who do not have Matlab? simple, you 'rebuild" your demo with the MCR and delivers an executable to be run on the customer PC. This is an over-simplification of the process, but the point is made. Matlab exists as a x86 executable (say < 1G) which can be ported, hence it could be hardcoded.
Finally, this one is for me. Since i was a kid I made a point of honour at guessing April's fool jokes. But every 20 years or so I got really taken for a ride, especially if it is something "I knew they would be stupid enough to do that" Kind of Apple buying Tesla.
And so this year, Clever Cleve came up with a Matlab announcement: "the-matlab-watch".
http://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/2015/04/01/experiencing-the-matlab-watch/?s_tid=Blog_Cleve_Category    Now, where he was really clever is that the platform was kind of realistic. He complained a bit about the lack of keyboard. Anyway he took me a few re-readings to realize it was a joke. Gosh, as John Updike said "an old cuckoo has always a second wind"

 The Near future: The Matlab Box                                            
It is obvious that there is niche market for a Matlab box. The problem is "is it bigger than Wall street?". Still, I would love The Mathworks to come up with something even if it is only a re branding operation. At worst they would piss-off a few ecosystem customers. Instead we have a myriad of analytics vendors and solutions, which is fair enough but has no interest for me, at least in this Blog.