How Far Left Can We Really Shift Verification?

“Shift left” has been in the engineering lexicon for so long that it risks becoming wallpaper. We nod at it, we put it on slides, and we move on. Things that used to live comfortably at the tail end of the design flow — software bring-up, power and performance characterization, thermal analysis — are being dragged earlier and earlier into the schedule, driven by the need to not only meet schedules, but meeting them with the right design characteristics.