A method of processing a general-purpose, high level language program to determine a hardware representation of the program can include compiling the general-purpose, high level language program to generate a language independent model (100) and identifying data input to each component specified in the language independent model to determine a latency for each component (220, 225). The components of the language independent model can be annotated for generation of control signals such that each component is activated when both control and valid data arrive at the component (230). Each component also can be annotated with an output latency derived from a latency of a control signal for the component and a latency determined from execution of the component itself (235).