diff --git a/read-cache.c b/read-cache.c
index 3ace29d58f..7acc2c86f4 100644
--- a/read-cache.c
+++ b/read-cache.c
@@ -1720,7 +1720,8 @@ int read_index(struct index_state *istate)
 	return read_index_from(istate, get_index_file(), get_git_dir());
 }
 
-static struct cache_entry *create_from_disk(struct index_state *istate,
+static struct cache_entry *create_from_disk(struct mem_pool *ce_mem_pool,
+					    unsigned int version,
 					    struct ondisk_cache_entry *ondisk,
 					    unsigned long *ent_size,
 					    const struct cache_entry *previous_ce)
@@ -1737,7 +1738,7 @@ static struct cache_entry *create_from_disk(struct index_state *istate,
 	 * number of bytes to be stripped from the end of the previous name,
 	 * and the bytes to append to the result, to come up with its name.
 	 */
-	int expand_name_field = istate->version == 4;
+	int expand_name_field = version == 4;
 
 	/* On-disk flags are just 16 bits */
 	flags = get_be16(&ondisk->flags);
@@ -1761,16 +1762,17 @@ static struct cache_entry *create_from_disk(struct index_state *istate,
 		const unsigned char *cp = (const unsigned char *)name;
 		size_t strip_len, previous_len;
 
-		previous_len = previous_ce ? previous_ce->ce_namelen : 0;
+		/* If we're at the begining of a block, ignore the previous name */
 		strip_len = decode_varint(&cp);
-		if (previous_len < strip_len) {
-			if (previous_ce)
+		if (previous_ce) {
+			previous_len = previous_ce->ce_namelen;
+			if (previous_len < strip_len)
 				die(_("malformed name field in the index, near path '%s'"),
-				    previous_ce->name);
-			else
-				die(_("malformed name field in the index in the first path"));
+					previous_ce->name);
+			copy_len = previous_len - strip_len;
+		} else {
+			copy_len = 0;
 		}
-		copy_len = previous_len - strip_len;
 		name = (const char *)cp;
 	}
 
@@ -1780,7 +1782,7 @@ static struct cache_entry *create_from_disk(struct index_state *istate,
 			len += copy_len;
 	}
 
-	ce = mem_pool__ce_alloc(istate->ce_mem_pool, len);
+	ce = mem_pool__ce_alloc(ce_mem_pool, len);
 
 	ce->ce_stat_data.sd_ctime.sec = get_be32(&ondisk->ctime.sec);
 	ce->ce_stat_data.sd_mtime.sec = get_be32(&ondisk->mtime.sec);
@@ -1948,6 +1950,52 @@ static void *load_index_extensions(void *_data)
 	return NULL;
 }
 
+/*
+ * A helper function that will load the specified range of cache entries
+ * from the memory mapped file and add them to the given index.
+ */
+static unsigned long load_cache_entry_block(struct index_state *istate,
+			struct mem_pool *ce_mem_pool, int offset, int nr, const char *mmap,
+			unsigned long start_offset, const struct cache_entry *previous_ce)
+{
+	int i;
+	unsigned long src_offset = start_offset;
+
+	for (i = offset; i < offset + nr; i++) {
+		struct ondisk_cache_entry *disk_ce;
+		struct cache_entry *ce;
+		unsigned long consumed;
+
+		disk_ce = (struct ondisk_cache_entry *)(mmap + src_offset);
+		ce = create_from_disk(ce_mem_pool, istate->version, disk_ce, &consumed, previous_ce);
+		set_index_entry(istate, i, ce);
+
+		src_offset += consumed;
+		previous_ce = ce;
+	}
+	return src_offset - start_offset;
+}
+
+static unsigned long load_all_cache_entries(struct index_state *istate,
+			const char *mmap, size_t mmap_size, unsigned long src_offset)
+{
+	unsigned long consumed;
+
+	if (istate->version == 4) {
+		mem_pool_init(&istate->ce_mem_pool,
+				estimate_cache_size_from_compressed(istate->cache_nr));
+	} else {
+		mem_pool_init(&istate->ce_mem_pool,
+				estimate_cache_size(mmap_size, istate->cache_nr));
+	}
+
+	consumed = load_cache_entry_block(istate, istate->ce_mem_pool,
+					0, istate->cache_nr, mmap, src_offset, NULL);
+	return consumed;
+}
+
+#ifndef NO_PTHREADS
+
 /*
  * Mostly randomly chosen maximum thread counts: we
  * cap the parallelism to online_cpus() threads, and we want
@@ -1957,20 +2005,123 @@ static void *load_index_extensions(void *_data)
 
 #define THREAD_COST		(10000)
 
+struct load_cache_entries_thread_data
+{
+	pthread_t pthread;
+	struct index_state *istate;
+	struct mem_pool *ce_mem_pool;
+	int offset;
+	const char *mmap;
+	struct index_entry_offset_table *ieot;
+	int ieot_start;		/* starting index into the ieot array */
+	int ieot_blocks;	/* count of ieot entries to process */
+	unsigned long consumed;	/* return # of bytes in index file processed */
+};
+
+/*
+ * A thread proc to run the load_cache_entries() computation
+ * across multiple background threads.
+ */
+static void *load_cache_entries_thread(void *_data)
+{
+	struct load_cache_entries_thread_data *p = _data;
+	int i;
+
+	/* iterate across all ieot blocks assigned to this thread */
+	for (i = p->ieot_start; i < p->ieot_start + p->ieot_blocks; i++) {
+		p->consumed += load_cache_entry_block(p->istate, p->ce_mem_pool,
+			p->offset, p->ieot->entries[i].nr, p->mmap, p->ieot->entries[i].offset, NULL);
+		p->offset += p->ieot->entries[i].nr;
+	}
+	return NULL;
+}
+
+static unsigned long load_cache_entries_threaded(struct index_state *istate, const char *mmap, size_t mmap_size,
+			unsigned long src_offset, int nr_threads, struct index_entry_offset_table *ieot)
+{
+	int i, offset, ieot_blocks, ieot_start, err;
+	struct load_cache_entries_thread_data *data;
+	unsigned long consumed = 0;
+
+	/* a little sanity checking */
+	if (istate->name_hash_initialized)
+		BUG("the name hash isn't thread safe");
+
+	mem_pool_init(&istate->ce_mem_pool, 0);
+
+	/* ensure we have no more threads than we have blocks to process */
+	if (nr_threads > ieot->nr)
+		nr_threads = ieot->nr;
+	data = xcalloc(nr_threads, sizeof(*data));
+
+	offset = ieot_start = 0;
+	ieot_blocks = DIV_ROUND_UP(ieot->nr, nr_threads);
+	for (i = 0; i < nr_threads; i++) {
+		struct load_cache_entries_thread_data *p = &data[i];
+		int nr, j;
+
+		if (ieot_start + ieot_blocks > ieot->nr)
+			ieot_blocks = ieot->nr - ieot_start;
+
+		p->istate = istate;
+		p->offset = offset;
+		p->mmap = mmap;
+		p->ieot = ieot;
+		p->ieot_start = ieot_start;
+		p->ieot_blocks = ieot_blocks;
+
+		/* create a mem_pool for each thread */
+		nr = 0;
+		for (j = p->ieot_start; j < p->ieot_start + p->ieot_blocks; j++)
+			nr += p->ieot->entries[j].nr;
+		if (istate->version == 4) {
+			mem_pool_init(&p->ce_mem_pool,
+				estimate_cache_size_from_compressed(nr));
+		} else {
+			mem_pool_init(&p->ce_mem_pool,
+				estimate_cache_size(mmap_size, nr));
+		}
+
+		err = pthread_create(&p->pthread, NULL, load_cache_entries_thread, p);
+		if (err)
+			die(_("unable to create load_cache_entries thread: %s"), strerror(err));
+
+		/* increment by the number of cache entries in the ieot block being processed */
+		for (j = 0; j < ieot_blocks; j++)
+			offset += ieot->entries[ieot_start + j].nr;
+		ieot_start += ieot_blocks;
+	}
+
+	for (i = 0; i < nr_threads; i++) {
+		struct load_cache_entries_thread_data *p = &data[i];
+
+		err = pthread_join(p->pthread, NULL);
+		if (err)
+			die(_("unable to join load_cache_entries thread: %s"), strerror(err));
+		mem_pool_combine(istate->ce_mem_pool, p->ce_mem_pool);
+		consumed += p->consumed;
+	}
+
+	free(data);
+
+	return consumed;
+}
+#endif
+
 /* remember to discard_cache() before reading a different cache! */
 int do_read_index(struct index_state *istate, const char *path, int must_exist)
 {
-	int fd, i;
+	int fd;
 	struct stat st;
 	unsigned long src_offset;
 	const struct cache_header *hdr;
 	const char *mmap;
 	size_t mmap_size;
-	const struct cache_entry *previous_ce = NULL;
 	struct load_index_extensions p;
 	size_t extension_offset = 0;
 #ifndef NO_PTHREADS
-	int nr_threads;
+	int nr_threads, cpus;
+	struct index_entry_offset_table *ieot = NULL;
 #endif
 
 	if (istate->initialized)
@@ -2012,10 +2163,18 @@ int do_read_index(struct index_state *istate, const char *path, int must_exist)
 	p.mmap = mmap;
 	p.mmap_size = mmap_size;
 
+	src_offset = sizeof(*hdr);
+
 #ifndef NO_PTHREADS
 	nr_threads = git_config_get_index_threads();
-	if (!nr_threads)
-		nr_threads = online_cpus();
+
+	/* TODO: does creating more threads than cores help? */
+	if (!nr_threads) {
+		nr_threads = istate->cache_nr / THREAD_COST;
+		cpus = online_cpus();
+		if (nr_threads > cpus)
+			nr_threads = cpus;
+	}
 
 	if (nr_threads > 1) {
 		extension_offset = read_eoie_extension(mmap, mmap_size);
@@ -2030,29 +2189,24 @@ int do_read_index(struct index_state *istate, const char *path, int must_exist)
 			nr_threads--;
 		}
 	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Locate and read the index entry offset table so that we can use it
+	 * to multi-thread the reading of the cache entries.
+	 */
+	if (extension_offset && nr_threads > 1)
+		ieot = read_ieot_extension(mmap, mmap_size, extension_offset);
+
+	if (ieot) {
+		src_offset += load_cache_entries_threaded(istate, mmap, mmap_size, src_offset, nr_threads, ieot);
+		free(ieot);
+	} else {
+		src_offset += load_all_cache_entries(istate, mmap, mmap_size, src_offset);
+	}
+#else
+	src_offset += load_all_cache_entries(istate, mmap, mmap_size, src_offset);
 #endif
 
-	if (istate->version == 4) {
-		mem_pool_init(&istate->ce_mem_pool,
-			      estimate_cache_size_from_compressed(istate->cache_nr));
-	} else {
-		mem_pool_init(&istate->ce_mem_pool,
-			      estimate_cache_size(mmap_size, istate->cache_nr));
-	}
-
-	src_offset = sizeof(*hdr);
-	for (i = 0; i < istate->cache_nr; i++) {
-		struct ondisk_cache_entry *disk_ce;
-		struct cache_entry *ce;
-		unsigned long consumed;
-
-		disk_ce = (struct ondisk_cache_entry *)(mmap + src_offset);
-		ce = create_from_disk(istate, disk_ce, &consumed, previous_ce);
-		set_index_entry(istate, i, ce);
-
-		src_offset += consumed;
-		previous_ce = ce;
-	}
 	istate->timestamp.sec = st.st_mtime;
 	istate->timestamp.nsec = ST_MTIME_NSEC(st);
 
@@ -2549,7 +2703,7 @@ static int do_write_index(struct index_state *istate, struct tempfile *tempfile,
 	struct strbuf previous_name_buf = STRBUF_INIT, *previous_name;
 	int drop_cache_tree = istate->drop_cache_tree;
 	off_t offset;
-	int ieot_blocks = 1;
+	int ieot_entries = 1;
 	struct index_entry_offset_table *ieot = NULL;
 	int nr, nr_threads;
 
@@ -2602,6 +2756,8 @@ static int do_write_index(struct index_state *istate, struct tempfile *tempfile,
 				ieot_blocks = cpus - 1;
 		} else {
 			ieot_blocks = nr_threads;
+			if (ieot_blocks > istate->cache_nr)
+				ieot_blocks = istate->cache_nr;
 		}
 
 		/*
@@ -2611,7 +2767,7 @@ static int do_write_index(struct index_state *istate, struct tempfile *tempfile,
 		if (ieot_blocks > 1) {
 			ieot = xcalloc(1, sizeof(struct index_entry_offset_table)
 				+ (ieot_blocks * sizeof(struct index_entry_offset)));
-			ieot_blocks = DIV_ROUND_UP(entries, ieot_blocks);
+			ieot_entries = DIV_ROUND_UP(entries, ieot_blocks);
 		}
 	}
 #endif
@@ -2644,7 +2800,7 @@ static int do_write_index(struct index_state *istate, struct tempfile *tempfile,
 
 			drop_cache_tree = 1;
 		}
-		if (ieot && i && (i % ieot_blocks == 0)) {
+		if (ieot && i && (i % ieot_entries == 0)) {
 			ieot->entries[ieot->nr].nr = nr;
 			ieot->entries[ieot->nr].offset = offset;
 			ieot->nr++;