Scilab is a free and open source software for numerical computation. It provides the user with a powerful computing environment for engineering and scientific applications. It comes with a high-level programming language adapted to matrix computation, 2D and 3D graphics, an integrated GUI and help manual.
Scilab is an open system where you can easily add modules written in Scilab or other programming languages such as C, C++ or Java or Scilab language itself.
It includes Xcos, an hybrid dynamic systems modeler and simulator in discrete and continuous time domains. It can be used for modeling mechanical systems, hydraulic circuits and control systems by using a graphical block diagram editor.
At the beginning of the 90’s, Scilab was developed at INRIA (French National Research Institute for Computer Science and Automatic Control) by the Scilab Group: five researchers from INRIA and one researcher from ENPC (École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées).
Then from 2003 it was developed at INRIA by the INRIA Scilab Development team as part of the Scilab Consortium, then from 2008 by the R&D team of the Scilab Consortium still at INRIA but in the framework of Digiteo (Fondation de Coopération Scientifique Digiteo triangle de la physique).
In 2012 the company Scilab Enterprises was created and it was in charge of Scilab until 2017 when Scilab Enterprises was bought by ESI Group.
From August 2022, Scilab belongs to Dassault Systèmes and is developed by people from the Scilab development team from ESI Group joined by developers from the time of Scilab Consortium.
At the very beginning, in the 80’s, a CACSD (Computer Aided Control System Design) software was created at IRIA (French Research Institute for Computer Science and Automatic Control). It was developed mainly by François Delebecque and Serge Steer with the purpose of providing a tool in Automatic Control for researchers. It was based on old Matlab software developed by Cleve Moler who later cofounded with John Little “The MathWorks” company. The name of this software was Blaise then changed into Basile which was distributed during a few years by Simulog, the first INRIA (French National Research Institute for Computer Science and Automatic Control) startup company.
At the beginning of the 90’s, Basile became Scilab at INRIA and was developed by the Scilab Group.
Scilab can be used by people from Industry, Education and Research who need to make high level numerical computations based on matrix computations in all domains of applied mathematics such as simulation, control, optimization, signal processing, statistics, etc.
Scilab provides the user with a friendly user interface and a lot of functions for making 2D and 3D graphics, so Scilab can be used at all levels from High School to University and from small to huge companies.
Versions and Companies
- January 1994: Scilab 1.1 by INRIA and ENPC at INRIA.
- August 2003: Scilab 2.7.2 by Scilab Consortium Phase 1 at INRIA.
- August 2008: Scilab 5.0 by Scilab Consortium Phase 2 at INRIA with Digiteo.
- October 2012: Scilab 5.4.0 by International Partnership Committee at Scilab Enterprises (created in June 2010).
- February 2017: Scilab 6.0.1 by ESI Group.
- August 2022: Dassault Systèmes.
Users, diffusion and number of downloads
Scilab is a free software for numerical computation, so the users come from all the domains of applied mathematics from around the world.
People from industries such as energy, defense, automotive, space, aeronautics, telecommunications, biomedical, finance, transportation, etc. use it.
Scilab is also used in Research and Education and as it is very simple to use for making graphics and simple programmation, it is also used at all levels such as high schools.
In 2012, there were about 100,000 monthly downloads from 150 countries from Scilab Web site www.scilab.org.
So Scilab is used all around the world. We can focus on India where a huge work for Education funded by the government was done, see scilab.in.
Current and Future
The latest Scilab version is Scilab 6.1.1 issued in February 2021 and made by ESI Group. Since August 2022 Scilab belongs to Dassault Systèmes and is developed by people from the Scilab development team from ESI Group joined by developers from the time of Scilab Consortium. So we can hope for a renewal in the development of the software but only time will tell.
Scilab Organizations and some People
1983 : Basile, IRIA.
- Authors: Serge Steer (50 %) , François Delebecque (50 %).
1984: Basile, INRIA, Simulog.
- Simulog is the first INRIA subsidiary created by Christian Saguez.
July 1991: Basile, INRIA, Simulog.
- Authors: Serge Steer (45 %) , François Delebecque (45 %), Claude Gomez (10 %).
January 1994: Scilab1.1, INRIA, ENPC.
- INRIA: Claude Gomez, Serge Steer, François Delebecque, Ramine Nikoukhah, Maurice Goursat
- ENPC: Jean-Philippe Chancelier.
January 2003: Scilab Consortium Phase 1, INRIA.
- Chief Technology Officer of Scilab Consortium: Claude Gomez.
- Scilab Development Team at INRIA = operational team of Scilab Consortium: Director Claude Gomez.
Serge Steer, part time : Scilab Development Manager until 2007 then Scientific Manager.
Vincent Couvert Scilab Development Manager from 2008.
- August 2003: co-ownership agreement between INRIA (80 %) and ENPC (20 %).
June 2008: Scilab Consortium Phase 2, Digiteo.
- Scilab Consortium Director: Claude Gomez.
- R&D team of Scilab Consortium: Vincent Couvert Scilab Development Manager.
July 2012: Scilab Consortium Phase 3 = International Partnership Committee, Scilab Enterprises (created in June 2010).
- Chairman: Jacques Dhellemmes.
- CEO: Claude Gomez until April 2015 and then Raphaël Auphan.
- Scilab Development Manager: Vincent Couvert.
February 2017: ESI Group.
- Scilab Enterprises has been bought by ESI Group.
August 2022: Dassault Systèmes.
- Scilab has been bought by Dassault Systèmes from ESI Group.