Various aspects of the present invention are directed to design modeling and/or processing of streaming data. According to an example embodiment, a system to model a hardware specification includes a platform (106) arranged to receive an input data stream and transmit an output data stream. The system also includes a source (102) for a streaming application adapted to provide the input data stream at a source data rate, a destination (104) for the streaming application adapted to consume the output data stream at a destination data rate, and a data channel (110) coupling the platform and a computer (108). The computer uses the hardware specification to generate intermediate data streams, which, in turn, are used to streamline the modeling for the platform.