How do i optimize my mac for signal processing ?

Ive been studying audio engineering for about 6 yrs from the perspective of the DAW, but am just now realizing that signal processing is much more in depth and complicated and have purchased a new mac book pro and Matlab, and am wondering if any have any advice on optimizing this computer for working with Matlab and signal processing, and possibly optimizing the software as well.

My computer ;
Model Name:  MacBook Pro
  Processor Name:  Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed:  2.5 GHz
  Number of Processors:  1
  Total Number of Cores:  4
  L2 Cache (per Core):  256 KB
  L3 Cache:  6 MB
  Memory:  16 GB

[Jan]

Please remove this pile of technical details. Nobody will read this massive block of meaningless buzzwords. If somebody is interested in Apple commercials, www.apple.com is the better address.

You ask for "optimizing" the hardware and Matlab. Any improvement needs an exactly defined criterion: If you want to process huge signals, install more RAM. If you need a higher resultion or a lower noise, use a better USB sound interface or a pre-amplifier. If you need to record signals over several weeks, buy an uninterrupted power supply. If you want to buy better cables but run out of money, buy a cheaper computer - the MacBook is nice, but this is not useful for signal processing. If you want to work with Matlab seriously, buy a larger Monitor.

Before you can think of optimizing the software, determine, where it does not satisfy your needs. You cannot simply install Matlab++ and everything goes better.

My personal opinion: The massiv buzzword block helps only to push up this question in the Google ranking. Therefore it is near to spam.

[John D'Errico]

Jan is correct. I've removed most of the crap. But even so, the question is impossible to answer, because optimization requires a valid objective, and "signal processing" is a huge target.

If you truly wanted to optimize it, regardless of the cost, you would have invested in a faster processor, more RAM, GPU, etc. And, since all of that can go virtually infinitely high, there is no optimization that makes sense. You should have bought a CRAY (or whatever is the current super computer for sale.) So optimization requires also a set of constraints.

If you are unwilling to spend more money, then there is very little you can do. Just install MATLAB.

The true optimization will then be in you learning to work efficiently in MATLAB. There you can usually achieve huge gains.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

As of R2016a there is now an Audio System Toolbox that you should look at. In particular the Mac should support ASIO drivers, which are essential for low latency operations -- provided, that is, that your external hardware supports those drivers.

Audio processing is a large topic. For example you could potentially want to get into creating your algorithms in Simulink so that you could use the HDL toolbox to generate VHDL to burn chips or to program FPGA. You might want to get into real-time kernel systems to further reduce latency. It depends on what you want to do.

[Brent Cartwright]

Thanks Walter...