DAMTP Computing News

A few days ago we installed the latest update to Matlab for testing on the Linux (sl5) machines. It can be run as:

     matlab-r2008b

It is available for Linux (x86 and x86_64 - sl5 only) -- we also have the MacOSX (intel, OSX 10.5) version but don't yet have any public machines of that kind.

The naming scheme is the same as for the last release (R2007b) in any case this version of Matlab reports itself as - using ver:

     MATLAB Version 7.7 (R2008b)

Assuming that no major problems are found with the new version, it will become the default matlab in a couple of weeks. The old versions probably won't be removed for a very long time.

Please note that this version contains a replacement for the old Extended Symbolic Maths toolbox based on a different internal implementation (Mathworks switch from using the Maple core to the Mupad core) and it now calls itself the Symbolic Maths toolbox - though this is not related to the old Symbolic Maths toolbox (which was very limited).

Also note that Mathworks dropped support for the Apple PPC based hardware - the last version to support that was R2007b so we cannot update the matlab on most of our existing MacOSX machines.

Anyone using (or planning to use) the Matlab compiler should contact us for details of the MCR (Matlab Compiler Runtime) path changes.

Those who wish to install the new version on their own machines for use against our licence-server should contact help@damtp.cam.ac.uk to arrange to borrow the install DVDs (and get the relevant licence info). The handful of people who have their own licences for laptops etc should also contact us.