According to at least one example embodiment, a multi-chip system includes multiple chip devices configured to communicate to each other and share hardware resources. According to at least one example embodiment, a method of processing work item in the multi-chip system comprises designating, by a work source component associated with a chip device, referred to as the source chip device, of the multiple chip devices, a work item to a scheduler for scheduling. The scheduler then assigns the work item to another chip device, referred to as the destination chip device, of the multiple chip devices for processing, the scheduler is one of one or more schedulers each associated with a corresponding chip device of the multiple chip devices.