Exploring the Shift Left: How EDA and Semiconductor Development may Shape the Future of Digitalization – Part 2
The Industry Forward Podcast has recently started its second season, which will focus on the concept of “shifting left” with comprehensive digital twin technology. To kick off the new season, Dale and I were joined by Mike Ellow, CEO of Siemens EDA, who brings 30 years of executive sales and technical management experience in Electronic Design Automation (EDA). Dale and I were very excited to welcome Mike to the show, and the conversation certainly did not disappoint. In part one of the podcast, we got a brief rundown of Electronic Design Automation industry before discussing the move towards software-defined products and systems and how it changes the game for companies across multiple industries. In part two, we continue to uncover the implications of the software-defined transition, including how it affects semiconductor development and why it seems to be leading more companies towards developing their own silicon instead of relying solely on off-the-shelf chips.
The Rise of Software-Defined Products and the Challenge of Integration
Today, software defines functionality, efficiency, and performance for a growing number of products and systems and is therefore taking over as the primary driver of system development. Given this change, I asked Mike if the digital ecosystems involved in software, electronics, and more traditional domains like the mechanical design need to integrate more closely to facilitate the creation of increasingly complex systems-of-systems.
Mike explained how the increasing importance of software creates a ripple effect across these multi-domain systems using the example of an electric vehicle. In brief, Mike stepped through how a change in software can alter the power demands of the compute platform, which affects draw on the vehicle’s battery and thus the expected range, which can, in turn, drive a reevaluation of the battery size and the physical packaging of the vehicle.
Managing these cascading changes requires seamless coordination between software, hardware, and mechanical teams. Mike’s example demonstrates how a single optimization in software can alter power requirements, forcing adjustments in battery configuration and vehicle packaging. Without proper synchronization, these interconnected elements can become misaligned, leading to costly delays and inefficiencies.
Mike goes on to describe how digital threads can connect the multitude of design and development processes across domains, creating a feedback structure within a highly complex development environment. Critically, the inclusion of verification “capture points” enables the outputs from each process or domain to be checked against relevant requirements throughout development. In cases where requirements are not satisfied, the implications of the shortfall can be understood across the system. Overall, the increased connectivity and consistent feedback provided by verification digital threads can help companies forecast development timelines and costs more accurately.
The Semiconductor Revolution: A New Era of Customization
Advancements in semiconductor technology are also playing a crucial role in the transition to software-defined products. The rising tide of computational power in modern semiconductors has enabled the deployment of increasingly sophisticated software in all sorts of products and systems. And, as software has become the primary path of differentiation for many companies, the silicon platform supporting that software becomes core to the delivery of a competitive product.
In the past, companies relied on monolithic chips—standardized silicon architectures that limited adaptability. Now, heterogeneous integration of multiple chiplets into a single package, also referred to as 3D-IC, allows businesses to modify processor cores, memory capacity, and interfaces to optimize performance for specific software workloads.
This flexibility enables companies to fine-tune hardware to meet precise requirements rather than retrofitting their software onto off-the-shelf chips, which often leads to inefficiencies. Historically, organizations avoided custom semiconductor development due to long lead times and high risks. Many relied on legacy components, which were often 8 to 10 years old by the time they entered production, limiting upgrade potential and accelerating obsolescence. However, advancements in compressed semiconductor development cycles, reducing timelines from 18 to 36 months to 12 to 18 months, are making custom silicon solutions more viable than ever.
Moreover, semiconductor companies now view customization as an opportunity to provide more value, integrating directly with software developers and optimizing architectures to match evolving digital workloads. The result is a paradigm shift where hardware is built for software, rather than software adapting to fixed silicon constraints.
Virtualization: The Future of Product Development and Verification
One of the most significant advancements accompanying these changes is the increased reliance on virtualization and digital prototyping. In the past, software development was often delayed until stable hardware configurations were available, slowing progress and increasing project risk. Companies relied heavily on physical prototypes, which required extensive testing cycles and often revealed unforeseen issues late in development.
Now, organizations are leveraging virtual environments that allow software teams to test and refine applications before physical silicon is manufactured. By running simulations and predictive modeling, companies can identify performance bottlenecks and integration challenges early, ensuring smooth synchronization between software and hardware when the final product reaches production. Additionally, virtual verification is becoming a cornerstone of modern development, enabling businesses to rely less on physical prototyping and instead trust digital simulations to optimize design decisions.
The ability to refine software in a high-speed virtual environment not only accelerates development but also reduces resource constraints, ensuring that integration issues don’t overwhelm engineering teams at critical points in production. Companies embracing this digital-first approach are seeing faster innovation cycles, improved coordination, and reduced delivery risks, setting a new standard for efficiency in complex product development.
You can listen to the first and second parts of our discussion over on the Industry Forward Podcast!
Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens’ software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimize their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future. From chips to entire systems, from product to process, across all industries. Siemens Digital Industries Software – Accelerating transformation.
