In the traditional sense “Shift Left” is the process of making things simpler in an effort to make things faster. Shift Left was the theme of the DVCon keynote last week delivered by Synopsys co-founder and co-CEO Aart de Geus which is right on topic when it comes to modern semiconductor design and manufacturing, absolutely.

The point of Aart’s keynote that resonated strongest with me was the requirement of eliminating point tools to shift your design schedule left. This is something I have heard since the beginning of big EDA but it has yet to come true. That is of course before multi-patterning, FinFETs, full coloring, and who knows what other design horrors 10nm and 7nm will bring us. Well, I have a pretty good idea but that is another discussion all together. The bottom line is that synthesis must be aware of the entire design coherent system if you want to Shift Left in the coming process nodes.

https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/4417-shifting-chip-design-left.html