diff --git a/build_detect_platform b/build_detect_platform
index bb76c4f22e..8f6d8469d7 100755
--- a/build_detect_platform
+++ b/build_detect_platform
@@ -71,16 +71,25 @@ if [ "$CXX" = "g++" ]; then
     MEMCMP_FLAG="-fno-builtin-memcmp"
 fi
 
+SSE_FLAG=
+if [ "$CXX" = "g++" ]; then
+    # use hardware crc32 instruction
+    SSE_FLAG="-msse4.2"
+elif [ "$CXX" = "c++" ]; then
+    # use hardware crc32 instruction
+    SSE_FLAG="-march=native"
+fi
+
 case "$TARGET_OS" in
     CYGWIN_*)
         PLATFORM=OS_LINUX
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -lpthread -DOS_LINUX -DCYGWIN"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -lpthread -DOS_LINUX -DCYGWIN"
         PLATFORM_LDFLAGS="-lpthread"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         ;;
     Darwin)
         PLATFORM=OS_MACOSX
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -DOS_MACOSX"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -DOS_MACOSX"
         PLATFORM_SHARED_EXT=dylib
         [ -z "$INSTALL_PATH" ] && INSTALL_PATH=`pwd`
         PLATFORM_SHARED_LDFLAGS="-dynamiclib -install_name $INSTALL_PATH/"
@@ -88,50 +97,50 @@ case "$TARGET_OS" in
         ;;
     Linux)
         PLATFORM=OS_LINUX
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -pthread -DOS_LINUX"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -pthread -DOS_LINUX"
         PLATFORM_LDFLAGS="-pthread"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         ;;
     SunOS)
         PLATFORM=OS_SOLARIS
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_SOLARIS"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_SOLARIS"
         PLATFORM_LIBS="-lpthread -lrt"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         ;;
     FreeBSD)
         PLATFORM=OS_FREEBSD
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_FREEBSD"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_FREEBSD"
         PLATFORM_LIBS="-lpthread"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         ;;
     NetBSD)
         PLATFORM=OS_NETBSD
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_NETBSD"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_NETBSD"
         PLATFORM_LIBS="-lpthread -lgcc_s"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         ;;
     OpenBSD)
         PLATFORM=OS_OPENBSD
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_OPENBSD"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_OPENBSD"
         PLATFORM_LDFLAGS="-pthread"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         ;;
     DragonFly)
         PLATFORM=OS_DRAGONFLYBSD
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_DRAGONFLYBSD"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_DRAGONFLYBSD"
         PLATFORM_LIBS="-lpthread"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         ;;
     OS_ANDROID_CROSSCOMPILE)
         PLATFORM=OS_ANDROID
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_ANDROID -DLEVELDB_PLATFORM_POSIX"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_ANDROID -DLEVELDB_PLATFORM_POSIX"
         PLATFORM_LDFLAGS=""  # All pthread features are in the Android C library
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         CROSS_COMPILE=true
         ;;
     HP-UX)
         PLATFORM=OS_HPUX
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_HPUX"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -D_REENTRANT -DOS_HPUX"
         PLATFORM_LDFLAGS="-pthread"
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         # man ld: +h internal_name
@@ -139,7 +148,7 @@ case "$TARGET_OS" in
         ;;
     IOS)
         PLATFORM=IOS
-        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG -DOS_MACOSX"
+        COMMON_FLAGS="$MEMCMP_FLAG $SSE_FLAG -DOS_MACOSX"
         [ -z "$INSTALL_PATH" ] && INSTALL_PATH=`pwd`
         PORT_FILE=port/port_posix.cc
         PLATFORM_SHARED_EXT=
diff --git a/util/crc32c.cc b/util/crc32c.cc
index 6db9e77077..42a1db2a45 100644
--- a/util/crc32c.cc
+++ b/util/crc32c.cc
@@ -10,6 +10,27 @@
 #include <stdint.h>
 #include "util/coding.h"
 
+#if defined(_MSC_VER)
+#include <intrin.h>
+static inline bool IsSSE42Available() {
+  int cpu_info[4];
+  __cpuid(cpu_info, 1);
+  return (cpu_info[2] & (1 << 20)) != 0;
+}
+#elif defined(__GNUC__)
+#include <cpuid.h>
+#include <nmmintrin.h>
+static inline bool IsSSE42Available() {
+  unsigned int eax, ebx, ecx, edx;
+  __get_cpuid(1, &eax, &ebx, &ecx, &edx);
+  return (ecx & (1 << 20)) != 0;
+}
+#else
+static inline bool IsSSE42Available() {
+  return false;
+}
+#endif
+
 namespace leveldb {
 namespace crc32c {
 
@@ -283,7 +304,12 @@ static inline uint32_t LE_LOAD32(const uint8_t *p) {
   return DecodeFixed32(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(p));
 }
 
-uint32_t Extend(uint32_t crc, const char* buf, size_t size) {
+// Used to fetch a naturally-aligned 64-bit word in little endian byte-order
+static inline uint64_t LE_LOAD64(const uint8_t *p) {
+  return DecodeFixed64(reinterpret_cast<const char*>(p));
+}
+
+static uint32_t Extend_NoSSE(uint32_t crc, const char* buf, size_t size) {
   const uint8_t *p = reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t *>(buf);
   const uint8_t *e = p + size;
   uint32_t l = crc ^ 0xffffffffu;
@@ -328,5 +354,57 @@ uint32_t Extend(uint32_t crc, const char* buf, size_t size) {
   return l ^ 0xffffffffu;
 }
 
+// For further improvements see Intel publication at:
+// http://download.intel.com/design/intarch/papers/323405.pdf
+static uint32_t Extend_SSE42(uint32_t crc, const char* buf, size_t size) {
+  const uint8_t *p = reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t *>(buf);
+  const uint8_t *e = p + size;
+  uint32_t l = crc ^ 0xffffffffu;
+
+#define STEP1 do {                              \
+    l = _mm_crc32_u8(l, *p++);                  \
+} while (0)
+#define STEP4 do {                              \
+    l = _mm_crc32_u32(l, LE_LOAD32(p));         \
+    p += 4;                                     \
+} while (0)
+#define STEP8 do {                              \
+    l = _mm_crc32_u64(l, LE_LOAD64(p));         \
+    p += 8;                                     \
+} while (0)
+
+  if (size > 16) {
+    // Process unaligned bytes
+    for (unsigned int i = reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(p) % 8; i; --i) {
+      STEP1;
+    }
+    // Process 8 bytes at a time
+    while ((e-p) >= 8) {
+      STEP8;
+    }
+    // Process 4 bytes at a time
+    if ((e-p) >= 4) {
+      STEP4;
+    }
+  }
+  // Process the last few bytes
+  while (p != e) {
+    STEP1;
+  }
+#undef STEP4
+#undef STEP1
+  return l ^ 0xffffffffu;
+}
+
+uint32_t Extend(uint32_t crc, const char* buf, size_t size) {
+  static int flag = -1;
+  if (flag == -1) {
+      flag = IsSSE42Available() ? 1 : 0;
+  }
+  return flag
+    ? Extend_SSE42(crc, buf, size)
+    : Extend_NoSSE(crc, buf, size);
+}
+
 }  // namespace crc32c
 }  // namespace leveldb