S-functions or protected model to protect intellectual property

Hi,

In the Simulink Coder documentation ( https://fr.mathworks.com/help/rtw/ug/generated-s-function-block-deployment.html ), there's a note that says : " While the S-function target provides a means to deploy an application component for reuse while shielding its internal logic from inspection and modification, the preferred solutions for protecting intellectual property in distributed components are: 1) The protected model, a referenced model that hides all block and line information. For more information, see Protected Model (Simulink) and 2) The shared library system target file, used to generate a shared library for a model or subsystem for use in a system simulation external to Simulink. For more information, see Package Generated Code as Shared Libraries (Embedded Coder).

Il will forget the 2nd option because i've no Embedded coder licence.

But there's no explanation why protected model are preferred than S-functions. Is there, somewhere in the documentation, some more advanced justifications ? Or is there someone who have experienced the 2 methods and could share the pros and cons of each one ?

Sincerely,

Stéphanie.

Answer 1

[Mark McBroom]

Protected model gives the option to encrypt contents via password and provides different levels of access. An S-Function only compiles the code into a shared library. If someone is adventurous enough, they could reverse engineer the algorithm from object code in the shared library.