The present invention provides a system comprising a neurosynaptic processing device including multiple neurosynaptic core circuits for parallel processing, and a serial processing device including at least one processor core for serial processing. Each neurosynaptic core circuit comprises multiple electronic neurons interconnected with multiple electronic axons via a plurality of synapse devices. The system further comprises an interconnect circuit for coupling the neurosynaptic processing device with the serial processing device. The interconnect circuit enables the exchange of data packets between the neurosynaptic processing device and the serial processing device.