FutureCast 2026 — Part 1: When silicon becomes a living system

Join host Harry Foster for a special holiday edition of Bugged Out. In this first episode of the two-part FutureCast 2026 series, Harry steps away from the usual guest interviews to look at how the semiconductor industry is evolving — and why innovation is now happening far above the transistor. This episode explores why modern silicon behaves less like a static product and more like a living, continuously changing system. Harry highlights the technologies driving this shift, from multi-die architectures to software-defined hardware, and explains how verification must expand across the entire product lifecycle. Key discussion points: Why innovation has moved above the transistor How chiplets, hybrid bonding, and HBM are redefining system performance The collapse of traditional design boundaries across logic, timing, thermals, and software Emerging system-level behaviors in multi-die architectures Why these changes reshape verification across physical and logical domains The role of hybrid digital twins in capturing system truth How software-defined products evolve after shipping Why OTA updates become verification events The shift from traditional to lifecycle-aware verification Predictions for 2026: multi-die verification becomes essential, and lifecycle-aware verification becomes mandatory for advanced AI-driven devices Predictions for 2030: hybrid digital twins become foundational, and early chiplet vendors enter the market with curated offerings