Do I need USB-to-Serial interface to plot graph real-time from Nios II to Matlab?

Hi,

I am able to read data from FPGA to Nios processor, then transmit this data to Uart component created in Qsys using direct register method (IORD_ALTERA_AVALON_UART_STATUS (UART_BASE); IOWR_ALTERA_AVALON_UART_TXDATA(UART_BASE, txdata);etc).

I stuck at the point that I want to plot graph to Matlab real time, I found this link (<http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28941-real-time-data-plot-from-serial-port>) , I assume that the data that I transmitted to Uart will be available at the serial com port, so I just need Matlab coding to read this data and plot the graph, am I right?

Can I ask one silly question, I still do not understand why do I need USB-to-Serial interface to the board such as FTDI UM245R module?

Without FTDI UM245R module, I thought MATLAB can still talk to serial port, isn't it?? Please correct me if this is wrong.

Thank you