MATLAB & Simulink R2024b Overview

R2024b, released in September 2024, delivers significant updates across wireless communications, control systems, architecture modeling, usability, developer productivity, and performance. The release focuses on streamlining workflows and modernizing the MATLAB and Simulink environments.

Major Toolbox & Feature Highlights

5G Toolbox – Adds support for 6G waveform generation and introduces tools to assess signal quality of 5G waveforms.
DSP HDL Toolbox – Includes the new interactive DSP HDL IP Designer app for configuring DSP algorithms and generating HDL code with verification capabilities.
Simulink Control Design – Expands to nonlinear and data-driven control approaches, including sliding mode control and iterative learning control.
System Composer – Enhancements include editing subsetted architecture views and modeling system behavior using activity and sequence diagrams.
Hardware Support – A new package supports Qualcomm Hexagon NPUs (used in Snapdragon processors), enabling production-quality C code generation for DSP workflows from Simulink.

MATLAB Enhancements

Live Editor Fonts – Full customization of fonts, sizes, colors, and formatting for code and text.
Help Center – Documentation now opens directly in the system’s web browser.
Solve ODE Live Task – Interactive Live Editor task for defining, solving, and visualizing ordinary differential equations.
Online Data Access – Roughly 30 new functions for accessing remote data via HTTP/HTTPS, including low-level I/O, datastores, and HDF5 files.
New Plot Types – Adds grouped-data visualizations like violin plots and multiple compass plots within polar axes.
Improved Debugging – New dbstop option to pause execution when unsuppressed output occurs, helping detect missing semicolons.
Build Automation – Streamlined workflows for defining and executing groups of tasks.

Simulink Enhancements

Component Interface View – Clearer visualization and management of component interfaces and signal flows.
Runtime Variants – Switch between different subsystem configurations dynamically during simulation or code generation.
Simulation Data Inspector – Uses the updated MLDATX 2.0 format for faster saving and smaller file sizes.
Quick Insert Improvements – Adds a details panel with block descriptions and contextual information to speed up model building.
Simulation Debugging – A new “Step Over” option pauses simulation just before the first block executes, aiding detailed debugging.
Simplified Model Connections – New programmatic function to connect blocks across hierarchies automatically, with ports added as needed.
Model Reference Bus Conversion – Improved behavior preserves bus structures during conversions without requiring bus objects.
Custom Sample Time Colors – Users can define their own color palettes (via RGB or hex) for sample time visualization.
Drag-in Model Blocks – Dragging a Simulink file into a model automatically creates a referencing Model or Subsystem block.

Community & Interface Updates

MATLAB Desktop (Beta) – Expanded features include dark mode, improved search, a redesigned figure window with toolstrip and panels, plain-text live scripts for version control, debugger and source control panels, and stronger MATLAB project integration.
ODE Task – New interactive task for solving and visualizing ODEs in Live Editor.
Compassplot – A modern replacement for the old compass function, offering more options and better visuals.