1. A method of emulating a hardware component of a target hardware system including a plurality of hardware components, the method comprising: a processor building a component model of the hardware component of the target hardware system, wherein the component model includes: a register interface through which a host application provides inputs to and reads outputs from the component model; one or more parameter registers that hold values of state variables of the component model; and a state machine that models behavior of the hardware component without explicitly emulating logic implemented in the hardware component; a processor modeling operation of the hardware component utilizing the component model; and during the modeling, a processor dynamically modifying the component model other than by modifying values of the state variables.