Microchip Technology Inc. announced Version 3.30 of its MPLAB(R) Device Blocks for Simulink(R), which make it easy to develop complex designs using Microchip's dsPIC30 and dsPIC33 digital signal controllers (DSCs). This software provides a set of user interfaces to MathWorks' Simulink graphical environment for simulation and model-based design, where code for the application is generated, compiled and loaded onto a target dsPIC(R) DSC in a single, one-click step. Updates to this version include multi-rate and interrupt-capable device blocks, as well as a Free edition for up to seven I/O ports that eliminates the compile wait time found on prior Free editions.

Existing users can upgrade to the new PRO edition for free. Microchip's Device Blocks provide complete, model-based control of most dsPIC DSC on-chip peripherals for greater flexibility and higher utilization, including digital I/Os, ADCs, PWMs, change notifications, output compares, input captures, quadrature encoder interfaces, interrupts and resets, as well as communication interfaces such as I(2) C(TM), SPI and UARTs. Additionally, designers can monitor, tune and log their algorithms and applications in real time, through a GUI.