Central Consulting

Matlab

MATLAB (matrix laboratory) is an interactive application for numerical computation and visualization available on the ACS cluster. The University also has a site license arrangement for individual, University-owned workstations; see the Information Technology MATLAB site license distribution page.

MATLAB is a product of MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB incorporates numerical analysis, matrix computation, signal processing, and graphics in a single computing environment. Applications of MATLAB include "general purpose numeric computation, algorithm prototyping, and special purpose problem solving with matrix formulations that arise in disciplines such as automatic control theory, statistics, and digital signal processing (time-series analysis)."

MATLAB offers sets of standard and optional application functions called "toolboxes". A "pool" of toolbox licenses on ACS provides access to:

toolbox/control
Control System Toolbox.
toolbox/local
Local function library.
toolbox/optim
Optimization Toolbox.
toolbox/signal
Signal Processing Toolbox.
toolbox/symbolic
Symbolic Math Toolbox.
toolbox/uitools
User Interface Utilities.
Limited numbers of licenses for the following toolboxes are also available on ACS:
toolbox/ident
System Identification Toolbox.
toolbox/images
Image Processing Toolbox.
toolbox/ncd
Nonlinear Control Design Toolbox.
nnet/nnet
Neural Network Toolbox.
nnet/nndemos
Neural Network Demonstrations and Applications.
toolbox/stats
Statistics Toolbox.
Using MATLAB
MATLAB can be used from both X and ASCII terminals. However, when running MATLAB from an ASCII terminal, output from graphics commands can only be sent to the printer, not to the screen. MATLAB automatically detects terminal type.

Due to incompatibilies with AIX, we currently support two versions of MATLAB on the ACS cluster:

MATLAB version 5.0
ACS2
MATLAB version 5.3
ACS1, ACS3, ACS4, ACS5, ACS6

To start MATLAB, type matlab at the ACS prompt.

To exit MATLAB, type: exit or quit at the MATLAB prompt.

References

  • Online man page; type: man matlab at the ACS prompt.
  • Internal help facility; type: help at the MATLAB prompt.
  • Manuals available at the Consulting Services Help desk at 111 Cummington Street:
    • User's Guide
    • Reference Guide
    • External Interface Guide
    • Building a Graphical User Interface
    • New Features Guide