Join Me at DVClub Austin — May 20, 2026
The End of Orthogonalization: Why Verification Is Entering a New Era
The semiconductor industry is entering one of the biggest transitions I’ve seen in my career. The traditional boundaries that once separated hardware, software, physics, packaging, and system behavior are rapidly disappearing. Verification engineers are no longer validating isolated digital logic — we’re increasingly responsible for ensuring correctness across highly interconnected, multi-domain systems.
That’s the focus of my upcoming presentation at the next DVClub Austin event on May 20, 2026, at the Norris Conference Center in Austin, Texas.
This event is especially meaningful to me because it also celebrates the retirement of Kelly Larson — one of the founding forces behind the DVClub community and someone I’ve had the privilege of knowing and working with for more than 25 years. Kelly has played a tremendous role in building and supporting the verification community through DVClub Austin, Fort Collins, and across North America. I’m honored to be part of an event recognizing his contributions and impact.
The End of Orthogonalization
My presentation, “The End of Orthogonalization: Verification in the Semiconductor Convergence Era,” explores a major shift happening across semiconductor engineering.
For decades, the industry benefited from relatively clean abstraction boundaries:
- Logic was separated from physics
- Hardware was separated from software
- Packaging effects were largely independent from functional verification
That world is changing.
Today’s systems are built using chiplets, 3DIC packaging, hybrid bonding, photonics, near-memory compute, and AI-driven architectures. These technologies are collapsing the separation between logical behavior, physical effects, workloads, and system integration.
We’re now seeing situations where:
- Thermal gradients affect timing correctness
- Software workloads influence coherency behavior
- Mechanical stress in stacked dies impacts functionality
- Physical effects become verification challenges rather than packaging details
As a result, verification is evolving far beyond traditional digital correctness.
Verification in the Convergence Era
One of the central themes of my talk is that verification is becoming a continuous, lifecycle-oriented discipline.
Modern systems don’t stop evolving after tape-out:
- AI models change
- Security threats evolve
- Firmware and OTA updates alter behavior
- Workloads shift dynamically in the field
This is why digital twins and hybrid verification environments are becoming increasingly important. Future verification flows will combine simulation, emulation, prototyping, physical modeling, and AI-driven orchestration to reason across the entire system stack.
I’ll also discuss how agentic AI may soon coordinate entire verification workflows — helping interpret intent, manage regressions, analyze failures, and orchestrate verification across increasingly complex systems.
Join Us in Austin
DVClub events have always been about more than presentations. They’re an opportunity to exchange ideas, reconnect with colleagues, and discuss where our industry is heading next.
This event will be especially memorable as we celebrate Kelly Larson’s retirement while exploring the future challenges shaping semiconductor engineering.
Event details:
- Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2026
- Time: 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM
- Location: Norris Conference Center, Austin, TX
I hope you’ll join us for what promises to be an insightful and meaningful afternoon.
