An electronic system design platform and method are presented. The electronic system design platform includes a computing system that hosts a virtual channel manager. The virtual channel manager provides a graphical editor for receiving user input specifying design specifications of the integrated circuit, and the design specifications specify a number of functional blocks and current physical communication conditions between pairs of the functional blocks. The virtual channel manager is further adapted for designing a virtual channel interface for the current physical communication conditions between the pairs of the functional blocks, and selecting a communication protocol that is best suited for each virtual channel interface.