The MathWorks announces Excel Link; Customers can integrate MATLAB's advanced mathematics and visualization capabilities with Microsoft Excel; Creates a comprehensive, accessible financial computing environment

Business Wire, May 13, 1996

NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 1996 -- The MathWorks, Inc. today announced the availability of Excel Link, a software tool that lets financial professionals, economists, and mathematicians integrate data from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets with The MathWorks' MATLAB technical computing environment. Today's announcement reinforces The MathWorks' commitment to develop new interfaces with industry-standard applications and data providers, increasing the scope of available solutions for its financial services customers.

Excel Link works with Microsoft Excel for Windows, and lets MATLAB customers analyze and visualize data in Excel spreadsheets, including databases, real-time data feeds, and statistics from the Internet. Excel Link lets users who know how to develop Excel spreadsheet applications take advantage of MATLAB's computational and graphical power directly from Excel's familiar, easy to use environment. With Excel Link, customers can build and test MATLAB algorithms one step at a time - just as they build and test their own complex Excel spreadsheets. Advanced users, who use Excel's Visual Basic for Applications language, can also develop higher-order spreadsheet functions to access MATLAB.

"The availability of Excel Link allows users to perform leading-edge, complex mathematical computations from within their familiar Microsoft Excel environment, with minimal effort," said John Little, The MathWorks' president and CEO. "We're providing interfaces between our advanced mathematical technology and the tools and data our customers already use so customers can both build their applications and do their research more easily."

"Excel Link combines the advanced analytical technologies of MATLAB with the ease-of-use of Microsoft Excel, providing a great solution for customers in finance, engineering, and other technical fields," said Jon Reingold, General Manager, Excel Business Unit. "Excel Link is a valuable enhancement to Microsoft Excel."

MATLAB has long been the standard computing environment for scientists and engineers, with a steadily increasing presence in the financial market as large numbers of scientists and engineers have sought new careers in finance, and as economists and financial practitioners have explored applied mathematical concepts for their work. Excel Link can function as an array editor, allowing engineering and scientific users to pre-process and examine data in Excel while performing sophisticated analysis in MATLAB.

"Excel Link allows a broader base of less technical users to combine MATLAB's sophisticated analytical power with Microsoft Excel, the industry's best-selling spreadsheet," said Paul McNelis of Georgetown University Economics Department.

Excel Link is particularly well suited to analyzing and visualizing real-time and historical data from financial markets, especially in combination with the MATLAB Financial, Statistics, Optimization Toolboxes. Typical Excel Link applications include: -- portfolio pricing, optimization, and sensitivity and risk analysis -- statistical analysis, such as multiple linear and nonlinear regression, factor analysis, time series analysis, and hypothesis testing -- data smoothing and interpolation in two- and three-dimensions -- scenario analysis and Monte Carlo simulation

Application Toolboxes

Also available from The MathWorks are application toolboxes which extend the power of MATLAB by providing leading-edge algorithms and functions developed by renowned experts in financial analysis, neural networks, fuzzy logic, digital signal processing, control system design, system identification, dynamic system simulation, optimization, and other application areas.

This solid algorithmic foundation assures maximum efficiency and reliable results. These features have made MATLAB an industry standard for exploring and solving a wide range of problems in finance, engineering, science, business, and education on computer platforms from Apple, Convex, Cray, Digital Equipment Corp., HP/Apollo, IBM, Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems.

SIMULINK provides a highly interactive, graphical and intuitive solution for modeling and analyzing dynamic systems, including linear, nonlinear, continuous, discrete and hybrid models related to both finance and engineering. With SIMULINK, users can build block-diagram models using familiar point-and-click manipulations and dynamically link their models to C, FORTRAN and MATLAB routines.

Configuration, Pricing and Availability

Excel Link is currently available from The MathWorks, Inc. for Intel-based PCs running Windows 3.1, Windows NT and Windows 95. Excel Link supports Microsoft Excel version 5.0 and version 7.0. Excel Link requires MATLAB for Windows version 4.2c or later. Pricing for Excel Link starts at $195.

The MathWorks, Inc.

Founded in 1984, The MathWorks, Inc., is a privately held company based in Natick, Massachusetts, with over 270 employees. The MathWorks' mission is to provide the ultimate technical computing environment numeric calculation, visualization and simulation in selected application areas. The goal for the Financial Products group is to increase the productivity of financial professionals, accelerate the pace of discovery and development, facilitate learning and amplify the creativity of research in this growing field. -0-