diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 7c5af8bc9..c07b07bbf 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2461,6 +2461,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi 0.3.9",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "mmarinus"
+version = "0.4.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "2b8098e6e7a3823fa237ef9569010d3af3894a1ae54c92f0c220b9e6357f9473"
+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "modular-bitfield"
 version = "0.11.2"
@@ -5625,6 +5634,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "libsecp256k1",
  "log",
  "memmap2",
+ "mmarinus",
  "num-derive",
  "num-traits",
  "num_cpus",
diff --git a/programs/bpf/Cargo.lock b/programs/bpf/Cargo.lock
index 6331f861d..2b73e6c1d 100644
--- a/programs/bpf/Cargo.lock
+++ b/programs/bpf/Cargo.lock
@@ -2191,6 +2191,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi 0.3.9",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "mmarinus"
+version = "0.4.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "2b8098e6e7a3823fa237ef9569010d3af3894a1ae54c92f0c220b9e6357f9473"
+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "modular-bitfield"
 version = "0.11.2"
@@ -5002,6 +5011,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "lazy_static",
  "log",
  "memmap2",
+ "mmarinus",
  "num-derive",
  "num-traits",
  "num_cpus",
diff --git a/runtime/Cargo.toml b/runtime/Cargo.toml
index cf26ece59..1cff4178f 100644
--- a/runtime/Cargo.toml
+++ b/runtime/Cargo.toml
@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@ zstd = "0.11.1"
 crate-type = ["lib"]
 name = "solana_runtime"
 
+[target.'cfg(unix)'.dependencies]
+mmarinus = "0.4.0"
+
 [dev-dependencies]
 assert_matches = "1.5.0"
 ed25519-dalek = "=1.0.1"
diff --git a/runtime/src/shared_buffer_reader.rs b/runtime/src/shared_buffer_reader.rs
index c6251d202..4471ccfb1 100644
--- a/runtime/src/shared_buffer_reader.rs
+++ b/runtime/src/shared_buffer_reader.rs
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ use {
 // # bytes allocated and populated by reading ahead
 const TOTAL_BUFFER_BUDGET_DEFAULT: usize = 2_000_000_000;
 // data is read-ahead and saved in chunks of this many bytes
-const CHUNK_SIZE_DEFAULT: usize = 100_000_000;
+const CHUNK_SIZE_DEFAULT: usize = 50_000_000;
 
 type OneSharedBuffer = Arc<Vec<u8>>;
 
diff --git a/runtime/src/snapshot_utils.rs b/runtime/src/snapshot_utils.rs
index 534c47742..76b48a97e 100644
--- a/runtime/src/snapshot_utils.rs
+++ b/runtime/src/snapshot_utils.rs
@@ -781,8 +781,8 @@ pub struct BankFromArchiveTimings {
     pub verify_snapshot_bank_us: u64,
 }
 
-// From testing, 4 seems to be a sweet spot for ranges of 60M-360M accounts and 16-64 cores. This may need to be tuned later.
-const PARALLEL_UNTAR_READERS_DEFAULT: usize = 4;
+// From testing, 8 seems to be a sweet spot for ranges of 60M-360M accounts and 16-64 cores. This may need to be tuned later.
+const PARALLEL_UNTAR_READERS_DEFAULT: usize = 8;
 
 /// Rebuild bank from snapshot archives.  Handles either just a full snapshot, or both a full
 /// snapshot and an incremental snapshot.
@@ -1451,6 +1451,7 @@ fn unpack_snapshot_local<T: 'static + Read + std::marker::Send, F: Fn() -> T>(
             unpack_snapshot(&mut archive, ledger_dir, account_paths, parallel_selector)
         })
         .collect::<Vec<_>>();
+
     let mut unpacked_append_vec_map = UnpackedAppendVecMap::new();
     for h in all_unpacked_append_vec_map {
         unpacked_append_vec_map.extend(h?);
@@ -1459,12 +1460,29 @@ fn unpack_snapshot_local<T: 'static + Read + std::marker::Send, F: Fn() -> T>(
     Ok(unpacked_append_vec_map)
 }
 
+#[cfg(not(target_os = "linux"))]
 fn untar_snapshot_in<P: AsRef<Path>>(
     snapshot_tar: P,
     unpack_dir: &Path,
     account_paths: &[PathBuf],
     archive_format: ArchiveFormat,
     parallel_divisions: usize,
+) -> Result<UnpackedAppendVecMap> {
+    untar_snapshot_file(
+        snapshot_tar.as_ref(),
+        unpack_dir,
+        account_paths,
+        archive_format,
+        parallel_divisions,
+    )
+}
+
+fn untar_snapshot_file(
+    snapshot_tar: &Path,
+    unpack_dir: &Path,
+    account_paths: &[PathBuf],
+    archive_format: ArchiveFormat,
+    parallel_divisions: usize,
 ) -> Result<UnpackedAppendVecMap> {
     let open_file = || File::open(&snapshot_tar).unwrap();
     let account_paths_map = match archive_format {
@@ -1496,6 +1514,99 @@ fn untar_snapshot_in<P: AsRef<Path>>(
     Ok(account_paths_map)
 }
 
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+fn untar_snapshot_in<P: AsRef<Path>>(
+    snapshot_tar: P,
+    unpack_dir: &Path,
+    account_paths: &[PathBuf],
+    archive_format: ArchiveFormat,
+    parallel_divisions: usize,
+) -> Result<UnpackedAppendVecMap> {
+    let ret = untar_snapshot_mmap(
+        snapshot_tar.as_ref(),
+        unpack_dir,
+        account_paths,
+        archive_format,
+        parallel_divisions,
+    );
+
+    if ret.is_ok() {
+        ret
+    } else {
+        warn!(
+            "Failed to memory map the snapshot file: {}",
+            snapshot_tar.as_ref().display(),
+        );
+
+        untar_snapshot_file(
+            snapshot_tar.as_ref(),
+            unpack_dir,
+            account_paths,
+            archive_format,
+            parallel_divisions,
+        )
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+impl<T> From<mmarinus::Error<T>> for SnapshotError {
+    fn from(_: mmarinus::Error<T>) -> SnapshotError {
+        SnapshotError::Io(std::io::Error::new(ErrorKind::Other, "mmap failure"))
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+fn untar_snapshot_mmap(
+    snapshot_tar: &Path,
+    unpack_dir: &Path,
+    account_paths: &[PathBuf],
+    archive_format: ArchiveFormat,
+    parallel_divisions: usize,
+) -> Result<UnpackedAppendVecMap> {
+    use {
+        mmarinus::{perms, Map, Private},
+        std::slice,
+    };
+
+    let mmap = Map::load(&snapshot_tar, Private, perms::Read)?;
+
+    // `unpack_snapshot_local` takes a BufReader creator, which requires a
+    // static lifetime because of its background reader thread. Therefore, we
+    // can't pass the &mmap. Instead, we construct and pass a a slice
+    // explicitly. However, the following code is guaranteed to be safe because
+    // the lifetime of mmap last till the end of the function while the usage of
+    // mmap, BufReader's lifetime only last within fn unpack_snapshot_local.
+    let len = &mmap[..].len();
+    let ptr = &mmap[0] as *const u8;
+    let slice = unsafe { slice::from_raw_parts(ptr, *len) };
+
+    let account_paths_map = match archive_format {
+        ArchiveFormat::TarBzip2 => unpack_snapshot_local(
+            || BzDecoder::new(slice),
+            unpack_dir,
+            account_paths,
+            parallel_divisions,
+        )?,
+        ArchiveFormat::TarGzip => unpack_snapshot_local(
+            || GzDecoder::new(slice),
+            unpack_dir,
+            account_paths,
+            parallel_divisions,
+        )?,
+        ArchiveFormat::TarZstd => unpack_snapshot_local(
+            || zstd::stream::read::Decoder::new(slice).unwrap(),
+            unpack_dir,
+            account_paths,
+            parallel_divisions,
+        )?,
+        ArchiveFormat::Tar => {
+            unpack_snapshot_local(|| slice, unpack_dir, account_paths, parallel_divisions)?
+        }
+    };
+
+    Ok(account_paths_map)
+}
+
 fn verify_unpacked_snapshots_dir_and_version(
     unpacked_snapshots_dir_and_version: &UnpackedSnapshotsDirAndVersion,
 ) -> Result<(SnapshotVersion, BankSnapshotInfo)> {