Method and apparatus for controlling a computing process

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions therein, the instructions, upon execution by a computer system, configured to cause the computer system to at least:

• expand a source tree to form an expanded tree, wherein the source tree comprises a plurality of nodes of a computer process, including dependency relationships among at least some of the plurality of nodes, wherein at least one of the nodes represents a model or simulation for a processing step of a device manufacturing method and wherein process conditions of the device manufacturing method are defined for at least one of the nodes, wherein the expansion comprises:
• generation, for each different process condition, of a separate node for each different process condition,
• duplication, for each generated separate node, of one or more dependent nodes having an input relationship to each generated separate node;
• determine, for each node in the source tree or in the expanded tree, respective computing hardware requirements for processing the node;
• and
• determine, based on the determined computing hardware requirements, on one or more computer hardware constraints based on capabilities of a computing system on which the computer process is to be performed, and on dependency relationships in the source or expanded tree, an execution sequence for the computer process.

A method comprising:

• determining, for each node of a plurality of nodes of a computer process, respective computing hardware requirements for processing the node, wherein at least one process condition of a device manufacturing method is defined for at least one of the nodes;
• and
• determining, by a hardware computer system based on the determined computing hardware requirements, on one or more computer hardware constraints based on capabilities of a computing system on which the computer process is to be performed, and on dependency relationships among at least some of the nodes, an execution sequence for the computer process, wherein the determining the execution sequence comprises:
• assigning each node to a time step value of a plurality of time step values for performing the computer process, and
• assigning each node a life span value in terms of a time step value of the plurality of time steps.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions therein, the instructions, upon execution by a computer system, configured to cause the computer system to at least:

• determine, for each node of a plurality of nodes of a computer process, respective computing hardware requirements for processing the node, wherein at least one process condition of a device manufacturing method is defined for at least one of the nodes;
• and
• determine, based on the determined computing hardware requirements, on one or more computer hardware constraints based on capabilities of a computing system on which the computer process is to be performed, and on dependency relationships among at least some of the nodes, an execution sequence for the computer process, wherein the determination of the execution sequence comprises:
• assignation of each node to a time step value of a plurality of time step values for performing the computer process, and
• assignation of each node a life span value in terms of a time step value of the plurality of time step values.