FutureCast 2026: A Special Holiday Edition of BUGGED OUT

As another year closes, the semiconductor industry finds itself in a moment of transition—one where the pace of innovation is accelerating faster than many expected. Chip architectures are evolving, system boundaries are shifting, and verification continues expanding into new territory we couldn’t have imagined even a decade ago.

And like many of you, I find the end of the year to be a natural time to pause, look back, and ask a simple but important question:

Where is all of this heading?

This year, instead of wrapping up the season with one more interview, I decided to explore that question directly. The result is a special holiday two-part edition of the BUGGED OUT podcast called FutureCast 2026—and starting today, Part 1 is available.

Each episode is intentionally short—under nine minutes. Enough time to offer substance, but short enough to listen during a walk, while making coffee, or between tasks. In a world where every engineer is already overloaded, brevity isn’t just a format choice—it’s a feature.

Why This Topic, and Why Now?

If you’ve been paying attention to where our workflows, tools, and design approaches are moving, you’ve probably felt the shift:
We’re entering an era where silicon is no longer a static artifact, and verification is no longer something that ends at sign-off.

Workloads evolve. Models evolve. Deployment assumptions evolve.

And when systems continue changing long after they ship, the definition of “correctness” changes with them.

In FutureCast 2026, I explore the forces driving this change—not as abstract trends, but as real engineering dynamics already taking root:

• The movement away from single-die assumptions and monolithic scaling
• The rise of software-defined hardware behaviors
• Increasing cross-domain coupling between physics, logic, and software
• The growing importance of automated and lifecycle-aware verification

These aren’t isolated effects—they are connected signals forming a new trajectory for the industry.

A Look Through a Different Lens

Rather than offering resolutions or predictions up front (those come inside the episodes), these two sessions are meant to frame a conversation:

• What does verification look like when hardware behaves more like a living system?
• How do teams scale when complexity is no longer linear?
• What new engineering rhythms will emerge as AI-assisted workflows mature?
• And what role does automation play—not as a tool—but as infrastructure?

Whether you’re in verification, architecture, methodology, or research, these questions touch every part of the silicon development story.

A Holiday Invitation

My hope is that FutureCast 2026 serves as both reflection and provocation—a moment to step back from the urgent and look toward the inevitable.

So as we close the year, I invite you to set aside a couple of short listening windows and join me for this special two-episode conversation.

Sometimes stepping into the future doesn’t require a time machine—just the willingness to notice where the momentum is already carrying us.

Listen on:
Verification Academy | Siemens Network Podcast

To dive deeper into these themes, you can also download the companion whitepaper The future of semiconductors: Engineering in the convergence era.

Wishing you a meaningful holiday season — and as always:
Stay curious, and keep building the future.