Fixed-Point Blockset Release Notes

Unified Simulink and Fixed-Point Blockset Blocks

Many core Simulink and Fixed-Point Blockset blocks with similar functions have been unified in this release. For example, the Sum block in the Simulink Math Operations library and the Sum block in the Fixed-Point Blockset Math library are now the same block. All the functionality from each original block has been maintained in unifying these blocks. Compatibility with fixed-point data types and/or specific fixed-point features are now available with all of these blocks, whether the blocks used are from Simulink or from the Fixed-Point Blockset. You do not need to make any changes to your earlier models as a result of this improvement. You can now use any of the unified blocks with either built-in data types or fixed-point data types, which eliminates the need to replace blocks in your models when you want to use different data types. This change does not require Simulink users to have a Fixed-Point Blockset license. Refer to Installation and Licensing above for more information.

Fixed-Point Blockset blocks that have been unified no longer have an "F" on their block icon. However, not all Fixed-Point Blockset blocks that have counterparts in Simulink libraries have been unified. You can still use the fixpt_convert function to replace nonunified Simulink blocks with their Fixed-Point Blockset counterparts in your models.

Nonunified Fixed-Point Blockset blocks have an advantage over their Simulink counterparts in that they can handle more data types. As discussed above, you can easily switch them between fixed-point data types and singles or doubles using the global data type override setting. However, you may still want to use the Simulink counterparts of nonunified Fixed-Point Blockset blocks in some cases, because they support faster simulation times for the data types they handle.

The following table lists the unified blocks in this release, and the Simulink and Fixed-Point Blockset libraries in which they are found.

Block	Simulink Library	Fixed-Point Blockset Library
Abs	Math Operations	Math
Constant	Sources	Sources
Data Store Memory	Signal Routing	N/A
Data Store Read	Signal Routing	N/A
Data Store Write	Signal Routing	N/A
Gain	Math Operations	Math
Inport	Ports & Subsystems, Sources	N/A
Logical Operator	Math Operations	Logic & Comparison
Look-Up Table	Look-Up Tables	LookUp
Look-Up Table (2-D)	Look-Up Tables	LookUp
Manual Switch	Signal Routing	N/A
Memory	Discrete	N/A
Merge	Signal Routing	N/A
Multi-Port Switch	Signal Routing	Select
Outport	Ports & Subsystems, Sinks	N/A
Product	Math Operations	Math
Rate Transition	Signal Attributes	N/A
Relational Operator	Math Operations	Logic & Comparison
Relay	Discontinuities	Nonlinear
Saturation	Discontinuities	Nonlinear
Sign	Math Operations	Nonlinear
Signal Specification	Signal Attributes	N/A
Slider Gain	Math Operations	N/A
Sum	Math Operations	Math
Switch	Signal Routing	Select
Unit Delay	Discrete	Delays & Holds
Zero-Order Hold	Discrete	Delays & Holds

Installation and Licensing

Global Data Type Override and Logging Modes