Process Simulation in the Browser: Porting ViennaTS using WebAssembly

Abstract

We introduce a client-side browser application for high performance process simulation. The codebase is taken from ViennaTS, an open-source C++ process simulation engine, and completed with JavaScript based components, such as an editor to conFigure the simulation parameters and a result viewer. The C++ codebase is ported to the browser by compiling to a portable standard for an abstract instruction set: WebAssembly. We demonstrate the capabilities and performance of the application by performing several configurable simulations, including the emulation of the fabrication process of a stacked nanosheet field effect transistor. The simulations conducted in the browser application are only slower by a factor of 1.6 to 3.6 compared to native, single-thread simulations. Therefore, WebAssembly presents a promising format for portable and widely accessible high performance process simulations.