1. A method for automatic design of a streaming data interface circuit of a processing system, the method comprising: selecting a set of circuit parameters consistent with a set of circuit constraints; obtaining a set of stream descriptors that describe data locations of target data embedded within a data stream, wherein the target data can be transferred by the streaming data interface circuit between the data stream and a streaming device; generating a hardware description of a candidate streaming data interface circuit implemented as one of an application specific integrated circuit and a configurable logic, based upon the set of circuit parameters, that can transfer the target data as specified by the set of stream descriptors; evaluating the candidate streaming data interface circuit with respect to one or more quality metrics; and outputting the hardware description of the candidate streaming data interface circuit in response to the candidate streaming data interface circuit satisfying a set of system constraints and being better in at least one of the one or more quality metrics than other candidate streaming data interface circuits.