1. A method comprising: generating, using at least one processor, a plurality of processing chains for parallel execution on at least one processing unit comprising a plurality of processing cores, the generating comprising generating each of the plurality of processing chains according to a template processing chain and a specification of data to be processed by the plurality of processing chains, the template processing chain comprising a plurality of software modules in which at least one software module receives one or more inputs that are one or more outputs of one or more other software modules of the plurality of software modules, the specification of data defining a plurality of inputs to be processed by the plurality of processing chains, wherein the generating comprises generating the plurality of processing chains such that each processing chain of the plurality of processing chains is adapted to cause the at least one processing unit to perform operations defined by the plurality of software modules on at least a portion of the data defined by the specification of data; selecting a configuration for the at least one processing unit for executing the plurality of processing chains on the plurality of processing cores, the selecting being carried out based at least in part on an execution efficiency of the plurality of processing chains when the at least one processing unit is configured according to the configuration; and producing configuration information for configuring the at least one processing unit according to the configuration.