Embed automatically converts the control diagrams into C-code ready to be downloaded to the target hardware.

VisSim (now Altair Embed) uses a graphical data flow paradigm to implement dynamic systems, based on differential equations.

[3] The viewer can execute any VisSim model, and only changes to block and simulation parameters to illustrate different design scenarios, are allowed.

The VisSim generated code has been called efficient and readable, making it well suited for development of embedded systems.

VisSim can target small 16-bit fixed point systems like the Texas Instruments MSP430, using only 740 bytes flash and 64 bytes of RAM for a small closed-loop Pulse-width modulation (PWM) actuated system, as well as allowing very high control sample rates over 500 kHz on larger 32-bit floating-point processors like the Texas Instruments 150 MHz F28335.

The advantage of using models is that in some cases problems which appear difficult if expressed mathematically may be easier to understand when represented pictorially.

A typical model would consist of "virtual plants" composed of various VisSim "layers", combined if necessary with custom blocks written in C or FORTRAN.