# A Review on Software Architectures for Heterogeneous Platforms

## TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews the current state of software architectures for heterogeneous computing platforms, focusing on deployment challenges and identifying research gaps and trends in the field.

## Contribution

It provides a comprehensive empirical overview of existing research on software architecture for heterogeneous platforms, highlighting gaps and future directions.

## Key findings

- Identified key challenges in deploying software on heterogeneous platforms.
- Mapped research trends and gaps in the field.
- Provided guidelines for future research and practice.

## Abstract

The increasing demands for computing performance have been a reality regardless of the requirements for smaller and more energy efficient devices. Throughout the years, the strategy adopted by industry was to increase the robustness of a single processor by increasing its clock frequency and mounting more transistors so more calculations could be executed. However, it is known that the physical limits of such processors are being reached, and one way to fulfill such increasing computing demands has been to adopt a strategy based on heterogeneous computing, i.e., using a heterogeneous platform containing more than one type of processor. This way, different types of tasks can be executed by processors that are specialized in them. Heterogeneous computing, however, poses a number of challenges to software engineering, especially in the architecture and deployment phases. In this paper, we conduct an empirical study that aims at discovering the state-of-the-art in software architecture for heterogeneous computing, with focus on deployment. We conduct a systematic mapping study that retrieved 28 studies, which were critically assessed to obtain an overview of the research field. We identified gaps and trends that can be used by both researchers and practitioners as guides to further investigate the topic.