Shift-Left in the Age of Software-Defined Technology

Digital Twin Shift-Left in the Age of Software-Defined Technology

2026-02-03 From Craig Johnson * | Translated by AI 5 min Reading Time

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Software-defined products make development more complex and require close integration of software, semiconductors and system design. The digital twin serves as a central tool for mastering this complexity and implementing innovation more quickly.

In times of increasingly complex development processes, the digital twin is a key tool for mastering this complexity and implementing products faster.(Image: Siemens) — In times of increasingly complex development processes, the digital twin is a key tool for mastering this complexity and implementing products faster.
(Image: Siemens)

Numerous industries are undergoing a software-defined transformation that is creating new opportunities for innovation, including the automotive industry. Modern vehicles are an excellent example. Software updates that are routinely sent to vehicles remotely can improve performance, introduce new features and even fix problems without the need for a visit to the service center. The flexibility offered by software-defined vehicle platforms not only resolves customer issues, but also creates new opportunities for differentiation through feature updates and vehicle enhancements.

The changeover to software-defined development has far-reaching consequences for a product program and affects every engineering area and every product team. Siemens employs experts from all areas of engineering required to develop new intelligent products. Their interactions provide insights into both the technical and business challenges arising from today's changing digital landscape. Various questions arise here, for example:

How does software determine product functions in various industries such as the automotive and aerospace industries?
How does software-defined development change the way companies approach product and system development?
How can the comprehensive Digital Twin support these new development approaches?

Growing Complexity

The shift towards software-defined products brings with it new complexities. A change in software functions can trigger cascading effects in several interdependent areas. For example, changes to the behavior of the software on board a future electric vehicle have an impact on the power consumption of the computing platform and thus on the overall range. Depending on the extent of the range reduction, such a software change may require a reassessment of the vehicle's battery size and even its physical design.

The software definition increases the links between the subsystems of a product. In an electric vehicle, software changes can lead to design changes to the size and housing of the battery.(Image: Siemens) — The software definition increases the links between the subsystems of a product. In an electric vehicle, software changes can lead to design changes to the size and housing of the battery.
(Image: Siemens)

The increased importance of software development and differentiation also has an impact on the organization of development programs. In particular, it affects the semiconductor components that enable the software functions. Mechanical and electrical systems are still important for these systems, but the focus of attention and investment has shifted to software and semiconductors.

In the past, companies used commercially available chips that roughly met the requirements and then developed software that was tailored to the capabilities and limitations of the universal hardware platform. However, as software systems become more complex and important, more and more companies are looking for customized silicon solutions. These should be adaptable to specific software workloads and development methods and support the joint development of hardware and software.

In the past, developing customized semiconductors was impractical for many companies due to the lead time, cost and risk associated with producing application-specific silicon chips. Today, semiconductor manufacturers are shortening development times by advancing key innovations such as heterogeneous integration using chiplets. This allows them to combine cost-effective standard technologies, such as memory, with smaller, even cheaper and less risky customized silicon chips to achieve optimal performance and cost targets.

Digital Twin for Holistic Software-Driven Development

Today, manufacturers of complex systems must consider the development and integration of many subsystems, including:

Software applications and basic functions
Semiconductor components and modules
Electrical and electronic systems, including data networks
Mechanical components and structures

All of these aspects require different technical expertise and solution approaches that need to be seamlessly combined to create a user-friendly product. Companies are faced with the challenge of accomplishing this task despite tightening budgets and schedules in order to maintain their position in increasingly competitive markets. Improvements are geared to the pace of the industry leaders, which is why minor improvements compared to the previous development process are no longer sufficient.

This pressure requires networked, agile and holistic development methods that facilitate the flow of information between interdependent teams. This requires investment in digitalization through the creation of a comprehensive digital twin. The digital twin of any complex product or system connects all product models and data via digital threads that enable a bidirectional flow of information between development teams and project managers. The result is a constant exchange between development activities and design requirements.

As product complexity increases—such as in electric vehicles, aerospace systems or data centers—digital twins provide a unified platform to visualize dependencies between software, electronics and mechanical components. This real-time synchronization avoids costly delays and ensures that every aspect of the product meets changing requirements and regulatory standards.

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Beyond individual teams, digitalization improves cross-functional collaboration by providing stakeholders with accessible and transparent data. Supply chain managers, software engineers and mechanical engineers can interact in a shared digital ecosystem, optimize validation processes and ensure that changes do not cause unforeseen complications. Preparation for manufacturing can also be improved through early production planning, modeling and validation with the product's digital twin. This holistic approach reduces development risks and improves efficiency, enabling companies to bring high-quality, innovative products to market faster.

Semiconductor Virtualization Improves Software Development

For software-defined products or systems, virtualization of silicon development and verification is critical. Previously, software teams waited for physical hardware prototypes before testing software. This slowed down development cycles and increased project risks. In chip development, teams have been using model-based verification and emulation technologies for many years. The broader digitalization trend has now paved the way for the virtualization of silicon architectures and decoupled the development of application software from hardware development or selection. This enables active software development long before physical semiconductor devices have even been manufactured. (Figure 2)

The virtualization of silicon architectures makes it possible to shift software development to the left, as hardware and software teams can work together in virtual spaces.(Image: Siemens) — The virtualization of silicon architectures makes it possible to shift software development to the left, as hardware and software teams can work together in virtual spaces.
(Image: Siemens)

Such virtualization enables a design paradigm where software and hardware dependencies can be considered before final integration. Software teams can constantly update applications to reflect expected silicon performance. Because the accuracy of silicon models increases during development, the likelihood of integration errors is reduced. This also helps companies take full advantage of heterogeneously integrated silicon chips by facilitating the optimization of processor cores, memory configurations and interfaces to meet evolving computing performance requirements while reducing costs.

In addition, an interconnected digital ecosystem ensures that evolving software and silicon specifications are immediately reflected in the system's comprehensive digital twin. As the software and semiconductor configurations mature, the electrical and mechanical teams can finalize their design work with new information, taking into account any impact that a change in software might have on their respective systems.

To return to the example of electric vehicles: The digital twin ensures that the holistic impact of a software change is understood across the entire product ecosystem. For software developers, this provides the opportunity to optimize the change to achieve the desired behavior while minimizing the external impact. Once the changes to the software are finalized, new requirements can be communicated to the affected teams so they can begin updating their designs as needed.

Integrated Development Approach Necessary

The growing influence of software-defined products continues to change entire industries and opens up new opportunities for innovation and efficiency. At the same time, the increasing reliance on software is creating new complexities that require a more integrated approach to development. The convergence of software and semiconductor development has accelerated the demand for customized silicon solutions that optimize computing performance for specific workloads. Digitization, particularly through the digital twin, has proven to be a critical tool for addressing these interactions, enabling real-time collaboration and validation across cross-functional teams.

Ultimately, successfully navigating the software-defined era depends on a willingness to invest in digital infrastructure to create a comprehensive digital twin. By adopting digital twin technology, companies can optimize new developments, mitigate risks and improve product differentiation. (se)