Five signals from the 2026 functional verification study

The forthcoming 2026 Siemens EDA and Wilson Research Group Functional Verification Study indicates that the IC verification problem is changing in nature, not simply growing in complexity. Declining first-silicon success, increased CPU/GPU/AI accelerator-class participation, near-universal reported embedded processor content across implementation categories, a broadening verification ecosystem, and greater visibility of firmware-, safety-, and security-related respin contributors all point toward a shift from verifying designs to building system confidence in software-driven silicon systems.