May 21, 2020

Simulink support libraries

Note the following lines in the startup file: 
# simulink support libraries
ld <rtwlib.o
ld <extlib.o
ld <dsplib.o
What was done here was to compile source code that was shipped as part of matlab and load it separately from the servo code. The idea was (although we never did this) that we could thus have a smaller object file containing the servo model and perhaps load multiple iterations during testing without rebooting. The alternative would have been to compile and link these as a part of the servo model.

At this point it is neither here nor there, but it does make clear that this is Matlab supplied support code rather than anything we generated. Take a look at: 

/mmt/Mathworks_libraries
Where the Makefiles used to generate these libraries is preserved. Nothing here is of particular interest at this juncture.

The extlib library supports some kind of protocol over TCP to interact with the model. This was considered essential back in 2008, but has never actually been used.