Disclosed are a method, a system and a computer program product of operating a data processing system that can include or be coupled to multiple processor cores. The multiple processor cores can be coupled to a memory that can include multiple priority queues associated with multiple respective priorities and store multiple work items. Work items stored in the multiple priority queues can be associated with a bit mask which is associated with a respective priority queue and can be routed to respective groups of one or more processors based on the associated bit mask. In one or more embodiments, at least two groups of processor cores can include at least one processor core that is common to both of the at least two groups of processor cores.