diff --git a/Makefile.objs b/Makefile.objs
index 32fc37f..7a94fff 100644
--- a/Makefile.objs
+++ b/Makefile.objs
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ qobject-obj-y += qerror.o
 
 block-obj-y = cutils.o cache-utils.o qemu-malloc.o qemu-option.o module.o
 block-obj-y += nbd.o block.o aio.o aes.o osdep.o qemu-config.o
+block-obj-y += async-work.o
 block-obj-$(CONFIG_POSIX) += posix-aio-compat.o
 block-obj-$(CONFIG_LINUX_AIO) += linux-aio.o
 
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ fsdev-obj-$(CONFIG_LINUX_VIRTFS) += $(addprefix fsdev/, $(fsdev-nested-y))
 # system emulation, i.e. a single QEMU executable should support all
 # CPUs and machines.
 
+#common-obj-y = $(asyncwork-obj-y)
 common-obj-y = $(block-obj-y)
 common-obj-y += $(net-obj-y)
 common-obj-y += $(qobject-obj-y)
diff --git a/async-work.c b/async-work.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f28475
--- /dev/null
+++ b/async-work.c
@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+/*
+ * Async work support
+ *
+ * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2010
+ *
+ * Authors:
+ *  Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
+ *
+ * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2.  See
+ * the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
+ *
+ */
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <signal.h>
+#include "async-work.h"
+#include "osdep.h"
+
+static void async_abort(int err, const char *what)
+{
+    fprintf(stderr, "%s failed: %s\n", what, strerror(err));
+    abort();
+}
+
+static void *async_worker_thread(void *data)
+{
+    struct async_queue *queue = data;
+
+    while (1) {
+        struct work_item *work;
+        int ret = 0;
+        qemu_timeval tv;
+        struct timespec ts;
+
+        qemu_gettimeofday(&tv);
+        ts.tv_sec = tv.tv_sec + 10;
+        ts.tv_nsec = 0;
+
+        pthread_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
+
+        while (QTAILQ_EMPTY(&(queue->request_list)) &&
+               (ret != ETIMEDOUT)) {
+            ret = pthread_cond_timedwait(&(queue->cond),
+					 &(queue->lock), &ts);
+        }
+
+        if (QTAILQ_EMPTY(&(queue->request_list)))
+            break;
+
+        work = QTAILQ_FIRST(&(queue->request_list));
+        QTAILQ_REMOVE(&(queue->request_list), work, node);
+        queue->idle_threads--;
+        pthread_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
+
+        /* execute the work function */
+        work->func(work);
+
+        pthread_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
+        queue->idle_threads++;
+        if ((queue->idle_threads > 0) &&
+            (queue->cur_threads > queue->min_threads)) {
+            /* we retain minimum number of threads */
+            break;
+        }
+        pthread_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
+    }
+
+    queue->idle_threads--;
+    queue->cur_threads--;
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
+
+    return NULL;
+}
+
+static void spawn_async_thread(struct async_queue *queue)
+{
+    int ret;
+    pthread_attr_t attr;
+    pthread_t thread_id;
+    sigset_t set, oldset;
+
+    queue->cur_threads++;
+    queue->idle_threads++;
+    ret = pthread_attr_init(&attr);
+    if (ret) {
+        async_abort(ret, "pthread_attr_init");
+    }
+
+    /* create a detached thread so that we don't need to wait on it */
+    ret = pthread_attr_setdetachstate(&attr, PTHREAD_CREATE_DETACHED);
+    if (ret) {
+        async_abort(ret, "pthread_attr_setdetachstate");
+    }
+
+    /* block all signals */
+    if (sigfillset(&set)) {
+        async_abort(errno, "sigfillset");
+    }
+
+    if (sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &set, &oldset)) {
+        async_abort(errno, "sigprocmask");
+    }
+
+    ret = pthread_create(&thread_id, &attr, async_worker_thread, queue);
+    if (ret) {
+        async_abort(ret, "pthread_create");
+    }
+
+    if (sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, &oldset, NULL)) {
+        async_abort(errno, "sigprocmask restore");
+    }
+}
+
+void qemu_async_submit(struct async_queue *queue, struct work_item *work)
+{
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
+    if (queue->idle_threads == 0 && queue->cur_threads < queue->max_threads) {
+        spawn_async_thread(queue);
+    }
+    QTAILQ_INSERT_TAIL(&(queue->request_list), work, node);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
+    pthread_cond_signal(&(queue->cond));
+}
+
+int qemu_async_cancel_work(struct async_queue *queue, struct work_item *work)
+{
+    struct work_item *ret_work;
+    int found = 0;
+
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
+    QTAILQ_FOREACH(ret_work, &(queue->request_list), node) {
+        if (ret_work == work) {
+            QTAILQ_REMOVE(&(queue->request_list), ret_work, node);
+            found = 1;
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
+
+    if (found) {
+        async_work_release(queue, work);
+        return 0;
+    }
+
+    return 1;
+}
+
diff --git a/async-work.h b/async-work.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eef60f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/async-work.h
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+/*
+ * Async work support
+ *
+ * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2010
+ *
+ * Authors:
+ *  Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
+ *
+ * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2.  See
+ * the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
+ *
+ */
+#ifndef QEMU_ASYNC_WORK_H
+#define QEMU_ASYNC_WORK_H
+
+#include <pthread.h>
+#include "qemu-queue.h"
+#include "qemu-common.h"
+
+struct async_queue
+{
+    pthread_mutex_t lock;
+    pthread_cond_t cond;
+    int max_threads;
+    int min_threads;
+    int cur_threads;
+    int idle_threads;
+    QTAILQ_HEAD(, work_item) request_list;
+    QTAILQ_HEAD(, work_item) work_item_pool;
+};
+
+struct work_item
+{
+    QTAILQ_ENTRY(work_item) node;
+    void (*func)(struct work_item *work);
+    void *private;
+};
+
+static inline void async_queue_init(struct async_queue *queue,
+				    int max_threads, int min_threads)
+{
+    queue->cur_threads  = 0;
+    queue->idle_threads = 0;
+    queue->max_threads  = max_threads;
+    queue->min_threads  = min_threads;
+    QTAILQ_INIT(&(queue->request_list));
+    QTAILQ_INIT(&(queue->work_item_pool));
+    pthread_mutex_init(&(queue->lock), NULL);
+    pthread_cond_init(&(queue->cond), NULL);
+}
+
+static inline struct work_item *async_work_init(struct async_queue *queue,
+				   void (*func)(struct work_item *),
+				   void *data)
+{
+    struct work_item *work;
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
+    if (QTAILQ_EMPTY(&(queue->work_item_pool))) {
+        work = qemu_mallocz(sizeof(*work));
+    } else {
+        work = QTAILQ_FIRST(&(queue->work_item_pool));
+        QTAILQ_REMOVE(&(queue->work_item_pool), work, node);
+    }
+
+    work->func  = func;
+    work->private  = data;
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
+
+    return work;
+}
+
+static inline void async_work_release(struct async_queue *queue,
+                                        struct work_item *work)
+{
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&(queue->lock));
+    QTAILQ_INSERT_TAIL(&(queue->work_item_pool), work, node);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&(queue->lock));
+}
+
+extern void qemu_async_submit(struct async_queue *queue,
+				  struct work_item *work);
+
+extern int qemu_async_cancel_work(struct async_queue *queue,
+                    struct work_item *work);
+#endif
