Our world is heterogeneous in nature. This kind of diversity provides a richness and detail that is difficult to describe. At the same time, it provides a level of complexity and interaction in which a wide range of different entities are optimized for specific tasks and environments.

In computing, heterogeneous computer systems also add richness by allowing the programmer to select the best architecture to execute the task at hand or to choose the right task to make optimal use of a given architecture. These two views of the flexibility of a heterogeneous system both become apparent when solving a computational problem involves a variety of different tasks. Recently, there has been an upsurge in the computer design community experimenting with building heterogeneous systems. We are seeing new systems on the market that combine a number of different classes of architectures. What has slowed this progression has been a lack of standardized programming environment that can manage the diverse set of resources in a common framework.