Abstract: The waveform compiler methodology employs a top-down system decomposition coupled with component based design development to capture a user design in a series of parameterized models. A user selects components from a library 160 to create a data flow of the application 102 and a block diagram of a target architecture 112. A partitioning 124 of the application model 100 to the architecture model 110 is specified as a mapping. The behavior 126 is specified as state-event-action 704 and/or scenario diagrams 706. The design is reduced to a software/programmable hardware executable form 175 using software techniques such as component concatenation 804, mapping 808, language compilation, parsing 810, regrouping 816, inlining 816, transformations, and optimization.