1. A method of constructing a configuration database supporting configuration of a hardware system, said method comprising: determining a plurality of types of integrated circuits in a hardware system and how many instances of each type of integrated circuit are in the hardware system, wherein said hardware system includes at least two identical instances of at least a first type of integrated circuit and at least one instance of a second type of integrated circuit; and in response to the determination, loading into volatile memory a system configuration database including a respective chip hardware database for each type of integrated circuit in said hardware system, each chip hardware database defining a Dial entity controlling which of a plurality of different possible latch values is placed in a hardware latch of the associated type of integrated circuit, wherein said system configuration database includes a first chip hardware database for said first type of integrated circuit that contains per-instance information for each of said at least two instances of said first type of integrated circuit.