1. A method, in a data processing system, for binding a process to a heterogeneous processing element, the method comprising: assigning, by an operating system executing on a processor of the data processing system, an effective address range to a special purpose processing element within a plurality of heterogeneous processing elements, wherein the plurality of heterogeneous processing elements comprise the processor connected to a system bus via a processor slot and the special purpose processing element connected to an expansion slot, wherein the expansion slot is connected to the system bus via an input/output channel controller, and wherein the special purpose processing element comprises an interrupt handler, an exception handler, and an address translator; binding, by the operating system, the process to the special purpose processing element; executing the process on the special purpose processing element; responsive to an interrupt for the special purpose processing element, performing interrupt handling within the special purpose processing element; responsive to an exception for the special purpose processing element, performing exception processing within the special purpose processing element; and responsive to the process accessing an effective address within the effective address range of the special purpose processing element, performing address translation within the special purpose processing element to access a real address in hardware.