Patent ID: 7742888

Claim:
A method of utilizing computer-executable instructions for allocating processing units of a computer system to generate simulated diffraction signals in optical metrology, the computer system having a number of processing units, the method comprising: a) obtaining a request for a job to generate simulated diffraction signals using multiple processing units of the computer system; b) determining a number of requested processing units for the job to generate simulated diffraction signals; c) determining a number of available processing units; and d) when the number of requested processing units is greater than the number of available processing units, assigning a number of processing units to generate the simulated diffraction signals that is less than the number of requested processing units; e) determining a new number of available processing units; f) when the new number of available processing units exceeds the number of available processing units determined in c), re-assigning the job to the new number of available processing units or the number of requested processing units; g) if the number of available processing units is less than the number of requested processing units, re-assigning the job to the new number of available processing units; and h) if the number of available processing units is not less than the number of requested processing units, re-assigning the job to the number of requested processing units.