In some embodiments, an apparatus includes first and second signal processing circuitry configured to perform signal processing operations and second signal processing circuitry configured to perform signal processing operations, wherein the second signal processing circuitry includes a smaller amount of processing resources than the first signal processing circuitry. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes one or more storage elements configured to store context information for the second signal processing circuitry and the one or more storage elements are accessible to the first signal processing circuitry. The apparatus may be configured to select one of the first and second signal processing circuitry based on the complexity of input problems, the amount of transmission resources assigned to the apparatus, etc. In some embodiments, intermediate results of from the second signal processing circuitry are used as inputs to an operation performed by the first signal processing circuitry.