Computational Performance of MATLAB and Python for Electromagnetic Applications

MATLAB and Python are two commonly used scripting languages for prototyping electromagnetic problems today. Each of these languages provides access to computationally efficient functions allowing a user to easily run many math heavy problems with minimal programming. In this paper we will discuss the usage of MATLAB and a variety of libraries in Python capable of running these efficient computations. Tests will be run in both languages to compare both CPU and GPU computations. The runtimes of a variety of problems using each of these platforms will also be compared for a variety of mathematical operations typically used in electromagnetic problems. Finally, a simple angle of arrival calculation using conventional beamforming will be performed to show these speeds on a realistic problem.