Heterogeneous Computing

Heterogeneous computing is the use of multiple types of processors — CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, and specialized co-processors — within a single computational system. Unlike homogeneous multiprocessing, which replicates identical cores, heterogeneous computing combines fundamentally different execution models, each optimized for a different class of workload. The challenge is not merely hardware integration but programming model integration: how to express a single computation that transparently spans processors with different instruction set architectures, memory models, and synchronization primitives.