diff --git a/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/AnalysisTK.java b/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/AnalysisTK.java
index bf69f1069..4b323632c 100644
--- a/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/AnalysisTK.java
+++ b/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/AnalysisTK.java
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ public class AnalysisTK extends CommandLineProgram {
     @Option(shortName="L", doc="Genome region to operation on: from chr:start-end", optional=true) public String REGION_STR = null;
     @Option(shortName="T", doc="Type of analysis to run") public String Analysis_Name = null;
     @Option(shortName="DBSNP", doc="DBSNP file", optional=true) public String DBSNP_FILE = null;
-    
+    @Option(shortName="THREADED_IO", doc="If true, enables threaded I/O operations", optional=true) public String ENABLED_THREADED_IO = "false";
+
     public static HashMap<String, Object> MODULES = new HashMap<String,Object>();
     public static void addModule(final String name, final Object walker) {
         System.out.printf("* Adding module %s%n", name);
@@ -74,8 +75,9 @@ public class AnalysisTK extends CommandLineProgram {
         }
 
         this.engine = new TraversalEngine(INPUT_FILE, REF_FILE_ARG, rods);
-        engine.initialize();
-
+        engine.initialize(ENABLED_THREADED_IO.toLowerCase().equals("true"));
+        //engine.testReference();
+        
         ValidationStringency strictness;
     	if ( STRICTNESS_ARG == null ) {
             strictness = ValidationStringency.STRICT;
@@ -105,7 +107,7 @@ public class AnalysisTK extends CommandLineProgram {
         Object my_module;
         if (MODULES.containsKey(Analysis_Name)) {
             my_module = MODULES.get(Analysis_Name);
-        }else{
+        } else {
             System.out.println("Could not find module "+Analysis_Name);
             return 0;
         }
diff --git a/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/TraversalEngine.java b/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/TraversalEngine.java
index 7ca448fe1..cccca14d8 100755
--- a/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/TraversalEngine.java
+++ b/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/atk/TraversalEngine.java
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import edu.mit.broad.picard.filter.SamRecordFilter;
 import edu.mit.broad.picard.filter.FilteringIterator;
 import edu.mit.broad.picard.reference.ReferenceSequenceFile;
 import edu.mit.broad.picard.reference.ReferenceSequenceFileFactory;
+import edu.mit.broad.picard.reference.ReferenceSequence;
 import org.broadinstitute.sting.utils.*;
 
 import java.io.*;
@@ -65,6 +66,7 @@ public class TraversalEngine {
 
     public boolean DEBUGGING = false;
     public long N_RECORDS_TO_PRINT = 100000;
+    public int THREADED_IO_BUFFER_SIZE = 10000;
 
     // Locations we are going to process during the traversal
     private GenomeLoc[] locs = null;
@@ -258,7 +260,7 @@ public class TraversalEngine {
      *
      * @return true on success
      */
-    public boolean initialize() {
+    public boolean initialize(final boolean THREADED_IO) {
         lastProgressPrintTime = startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
         loadReference();
         //testReference();
@@ -275,6 +277,12 @@ public class TraversalEngine {
 
             samReadingTracker = new FileProgressTracker<SAMRecord>( readsFile, samReader.iterator(), samFileStream.getChannel(), 1000 );
             samReadIter = samReadingTracker;
+
+            if ( THREADED_IO ) {
+                System.out.printf("Enabling threaded I/O with buffer of %d reads%n", THREADED_IO_BUFFER_SIZE);
+                samReadIter = new ThreadedIterator<SAMRecord>(samReadIter, THREADED_IO_BUFFER_SIZE);
+            }
+
         }
         catch (IOException e) {
             throw new RuntimeIOException(e);
@@ -310,22 +318,13 @@ public class TraversalEngine {
         return rodIters;
     }
 
-//    protected void testReference() {
-//        String line = "";
-//        refIter.seekForward("chr20", 79);
-//        for ( int i = 0; i < this.maxReads && refIter.hasNext(); i++ ) {
-//            final ReferenceIterator refSite = refIter.next();
-//            final char refBase = refSite.getBaseAsChar();
-//            line += refBase;
-//            if ( (i + 1) % 80 == 0 ) {
-//                System.out.println(line);
-//                line = "";
-//            }
-//            //System.out.printf("  Reference: %s:%d %c%n", refSite.getCurrentContig().getName(), refSite.getPosition(), refBase);
-//        }
-//        System.out.println(line);
-//        System.exit(1);
-//    }
+    protected void testReference() {
+        while (true) {
+            ReferenceSequence ref = refFile.nextSequence();
+            System.out.printf("%s %d %d%n", ref.getName(), ref.length(), System.currentTimeMillis());
+            printProgress(true, "loci", new GenomeLoc("foo", 1));
+        }
+    }
 
     // --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     //
diff --git a/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/ThreadedIterator.java b/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/ThreadedIterator.java
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e88393f47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playground/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/ThreadedIterator.java
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+package org.broadinstitute.sting.utils;
+
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
+import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
+
+/**
+ * Created by IntelliJ IDEA.
+ * User: depristo
+ * Date: Feb 24, 2009
+ * Time: 10:24:38 AM
+ * To change this template use File | Settings | File Templates.
+ */
+public class ThreadedIterator<T> implements Iterator<T>, Runnable {
+    private Iterator<T> it;
+    private final BlockingQueue<T> queue;
+    private int nOps = 0;
+
+    public void run() {
+        try {
+            while (it.hasNext()) {
+                queue.put(it.next());
+                printState("addNext");
+            }
+        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
+            // bail out
+            ;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public synchronized void printState(final String op) {
+        if ( nOps++ % 100000 == 0 )
+            System.out.printf("  [%s] Queue has %d elements %d ops%n", op, queue.size(), nOps);
+    }
+
+    public ThreadedIterator(Iterator<T> it, int buffSize) {
+        this.it = it;
+        queue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<T>(buffSize);
+        new Thread(this).start();
+    }
+
+    public boolean hasNext() {
+        return queue.peek() != null || it.hasNext();
+    }
+
+    public T next() {
+        printState("getNext");
+        try {
+            return queue.poll(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
+        } catch (InterruptedException ex) {
+            // bail out
+            System.out.printf("ThreadedIterator next() timed out...%n");
+            printState("getNext");
+            return null;
+        }
+    }
+
+    public void remove () {
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file