Method and apparatus for implementing a program language description of a circuit design for an integrated circuit is described. In one example, a program is specified using a concurrent programming language. The program includes programming constructs that define a plurality of processes and a plurality of communication channels. A hierarchy of elements that classify the programming constructs of the program are generated to produce a transformed representation. A hardware description language (HDL) representation of the circuit design is generated from the transformed representation by translating the hierarchy of elements to a hierarchy of HDL constructs that implements the plurality of processes and the plurality of communication channels in hardware.