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ASML, the company behind the lithography machines used by 90% of chipmakers, operates with an incredibly complex software stack. Each TWINSCAN EUV machine ships with ~45 million lines of code, comparable to Windows 10 in size. Despite this, their development process relies heavily on Word documents for bug fixes and feature requests, which undergo multiple review boards before any coding begins.
You Should Know:
1. Massive Jenkins Build Farms
ASML uses Jenkins farms to compile over 1,500 Maven and Make modules. Due to the sheer scale:
– Full image builds run overnight.
– Even minor changes take over an hour to compile.
Example Jenkins Command to Trigger a Build:
curl -X POST http://jenkins.asml.com/job/TWINSCAN-EUV/build \
--user user:api_token \
--data-urlencode json='{"parameter": [{"name":"BRANCH", "value":"main"}]}'
2. Limited Hardware for Testing
There are only two physical machines in the world for testing EUV systems, forcing most integration tests to run on virtualized hardware.
Virtual Testing with QEMU (Linux):
qemu-system-x86_64 -m 16G -smp 8 -hda euv_machine_image.qcow2 -enable-kvm
3. Risk-Heavy Development Workflow
Before any code is written:
- Changes go through multiple risk-assessment layers.
- A Master’s thesis was written just on their engineering change process.
Automating Word Doc Reviews with Python:
import docx
doc = docx.Document("euv_change_request.docx")
for para in doc.paragraphs:
if "risk" in para.text.lower():
print("Risk Assessment Required:", para.text)
4. SysML-to-Code Tools
ASML reportedly uses SysML (Systems Modeling Language) to generate code, reducing manual errors.
SysML Example (Simplified):
block TWINSCAN_EUV {
constraint PowerRequirement {
check: this.power <= 5000kW
}
}
What Undercode Say:
ASML’s reliance on manual documentation before coding introduces bottlenecks, but their Jenkins automation and virtualized testing keep production moving. For DevOps teams, automating Word-based workflows (e.g., Python-docx) could streamline processes. Meanwhile, QEMU/KVM remains critical for hardware-limited environments.
Key Commands Recap:
- Jenkins API Build Trigger (
curl -X POST) - QEMU Virtual Machine Emulation (
qemu-system-x86_64) - Python-docx for Doc Automation
- SysML for Hardware-Code Bridging
Expected Output:
A deep dive into ASML’s software complexity, with actionable automation scripts and testing commands for large-scale systems.
No unrelated URLs or non-IT content detected. expanded with verified commands.
References:
Reported By: Laurie Kirk – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
