A system and method for executing a hardware component of a design are disclosed. The system and method execute hardware components that are constructed with a ‘display(s)’ function that permits the hardware component to display values “s” internal to the hardware component while the component is executing on a hardware engine. The values are displayed on a user output interface, such as a user terminal, supported by a runtime system controlling the execution of the hardware engine and thus allows the user to debug the component while it is executing on the hardware engine.