diff --git a/drivers/base/base.h b/drivers/base/base.h
index 251c5d30f963..fd3347d9f153 100644
--- a/drivers/base/base.h
+++ b/drivers/base/base.h
@@ -116,6 +116,7 @@ static inline int driver_match_device(struct device_driver *drv,
 {
 	return drv->bus->match ? drv->bus->match(dev, drv) : 1;
 }
+extern bool driver_allows_async_probing(struct device_driver *drv);
 
 extern int driver_add_groups(struct device_driver *drv,
 			     const struct attribute_group **groups);
diff --git a/drivers/base/bus.c b/drivers/base/bus.c
index 79bc203f51ef..500592486e88 100644
--- a/drivers/base/bus.c
+++ b/drivers/base/bus.c
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
  *
  */
 
+#include <linux/async.h>
 #include <linux/device.h>
 #include <linux/module.h>
 #include <linux/errno.h>
@@ -549,15 +550,12 @@ void bus_probe_device(struct device *dev)
 {
 	struct bus_type *bus = dev->bus;
 	struct subsys_interface *sif;
-	int ret;
 
 	if (!bus)
 		return;
 
-	if (bus->p->drivers_autoprobe) {
-		ret = device_attach(dev);
-		WARN_ON(ret < 0);
-	}
+	if (bus->p->drivers_autoprobe)
+		device_initial_probe(dev);
 
 	mutex_lock(&bus->p->mutex);
 	list_for_each_entry(sif, &bus->p->interfaces, node)
@@ -659,6 +657,17 @@ static ssize_t uevent_store(struct device_driver *drv, const char *buf,
 }
 static DRIVER_ATTR_WO(uevent);
 
+static void driver_attach_async(void *_drv, async_cookie_t cookie)
+{
+	struct device_driver *drv = _drv;
+	int ret;
+
+	ret = driver_attach(drv);
+
+	pr_debug("bus: '%s': driver %s async attach completed: %d\n",
+		 drv->bus->name, drv->name, ret);
+}
+
 /**
  * bus_add_driver - Add a driver to the bus.
  * @drv: driver.
@@ -691,9 +700,15 @@ int bus_add_driver(struct device_driver *drv)
 
 	klist_add_tail(&priv->knode_bus, &bus->p->klist_drivers);
 	if (drv->bus->p->drivers_autoprobe) {
-		error = driver_attach(drv);
-		if (error)
-			goto out_unregister;
+		if (driver_allows_async_probing(drv)) {
+			pr_debug("bus: '%s': probing driver %s asynchronously\n",
+				drv->bus->name, drv->name);
+			async_schedule(driver_attach_async, drv);
+		} else {
+			error = driver_attach(drv);
+			if (error)
+				goto out_unregister;
+		}
 	}
 	module_add_driver(drv->owner, drv);
 
diff --git a/drivers/base/dd.c b/drivers/base/dd.c
index e843fdbe4925..2ad33b21888c 100644
--- a/drivers/base/dd.c
+++ b/drivers/base/dd.c
@@ -417,16 +417,140 @@ int driver_probe_device(struct device_driver *drv, struct device *dev)
 	return ret;
 }
 
-static int __device_attach(struct device_driver *drv, void *data)
+bool driver_allows_async_probing(struct device_driver *drv)
 {
-	struct device *dev = data;
+	return drv->probe_type == PROBE_PREFER_ASYNCHRONOUS;
+}
+
+struct device_attach_data {
+	struct device *dev;
+
+	/*
+	 * Indicates whether we are are considering asynchronous probing or
+	 * not. Only initial binding after device or driver registration
+	 * (including deferral processing) may be done asynchronously, the
+	 * rest is always synchronous, as we expect it is being done by
+	 * request from userspace.
+	 */
+	bool check_async;
+
+	/*
+	 * Indicates if we are binding synchronous or asynchronous drivers.
+	 * When asynchronous probing is enabled we'll execute 2 passes
+	 * over drivers: first pass doing synchronous probing and second
+	 * doing asynchronous probing (if synchronous did not succeed -
+	 * most likely because there was no driver requiring synchronous
+	 * probing - and we found asynchronous driver during first pass).
+	 * The 2 passes are done because we can't shoot asynchronous
+	 * probe for given device and driver from bus_for_each_drv() since
+	 * driver pointer is not guaranteed to stay valid once
+	 * bus_for_each_drv() iterates to the next driver on the bus.
+	 */
+	bool want_async;
+
+	/*
+	 * We'll set have_async to 'true' if, while scanning for matching
+	 * driver, we'll encounter one that requests asynchronous probing.
+	 */
+	bool have_async;
+};
+
+static int __device_attach_driver(struct device_driver *drv, void *_data)
+{
+	struct device_attach_data *data = _data;
+	struct device *dev = data->dev;
+	bool async_allowed;
+
+	/*
+	 * Check if device has already been claimed. This may
+	 * happen with driver loading, device discovery/registration,
+	 * and deferred probe processing happens all at once with
+	 * multiple threads.
+	 */
+	if (dev->driver)
+		return -EBUSY;
 
 	if (!driver_match_device(drv, dev))
 		return 0;
 
+	async_allowed = driver_allows_async_probing(drv);
+
+	if (async_allowed)
+		data->have_async = true;
+
+	if (data->check_async && async_allowed != data->want_async)
+		return 0;
+
 	return driver_probe_device(drv, dev);
 }
 
+static void __device_attach_async_helper(void *_dev, async_cookie_t cookie)
+{
+	struct device *dev = _dev;
+	struct device_attach_data data = {
+		.dev		= dev,
+		.check_async	= true,
+		.want_async	= true,
+	};
+
+	device_lock(dev);
+
+	bus_for_each_drv(dev->bus, NULL, &data, __device_attach_driver);
+	dev_dbg(dev, "async probe completed\n");
+
+	pm_request_idle(dev);
+
+	device_unlock(dev);
+
+	put_device(dev);
+}
+
+int __device_attach(struct device *dev, bool allow_async)
+{
+	int ret = 0;
+
+	device_lock(dev);
+	if (dev->driver) {
+		if (klist_node_attached(&dev->p->knode_driver)) {
+			ret = 1;
+			goto out_unlock;
+		}
+		ret = device_bind_driver(dev);
+		if (ret == 0)
+			ret = 1;
+		else {
+			dev->driver = NULL;
+			ret = 0;
+		}
+	} else {
+		struct device_attach_data data = {
+			.dev = dev,
+			.check_async = allow_async,
+			.want_async = false,
+		};
+
+		ret = bus_for_each_drv(dev->bus, NULL, &data,
+					__device_attach_driver);
+		if (!ret && allow_async && data.have_async) {
+			/*
+			 * If we could not find appropriate driver
+			 * synchronously and we are allowed to do
+			 * async probes and there are drivers that
+			 * want to probe asynchronously, we'll
+			 * try them.
+			 */
+			dev_dbg(dev, "scheduling asynchronous probe\n");
+			get_device(dev);
+			async_schedule(__device_attach_async_helper, dev);
+		} else {
+			pm_request_idle(dev);
+		}
+	}
+out_unlock:
+	device_unlock(dev);
+	return ret;
+}
+
 /**
  * device_attach - try to attach device to a driver.
  * @dev: device.
@@ -443,31 +567,15 @@ static int __device_attach(struct device_driver *drv, void *data)
  */
 int device_attach(struct device *dev)
 {
-	int ret = 0;
-
-	device_lock(dev);
-	if (dev->driver) {
-		if (klist_node_attached(&dev->p->knode_driver)) {
-			ret = 1;
-			goto out_unlock;
-		}
-		ret = device_bind_driver(dev);
-		if (ret == 0)
-			ret = 1;
-		else {
-			dev->driver = NULL;
-			ret = 0;
-		}
-	} else {
-		ret = bus_for_each_drv(dev->bus, NULL, dev, __device_attach);
-		pm_request_idle(dev);
-	}
-out_unlock:
-	device_unlock(dev);
-	return ret;
+	return __device_attach(dev, false);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(device_attach);
 
+void device_initial_probe(struct device *dev)
+{
+	__device_attach(dev, true);
+}
+
 static int __driver_attach(struct device *dev, void *data)
 {
 	struct device_driver *drv = data;
@@ -522,6 +630,9 @@ static void __device_release_driver(struct device *dev)
 
 	drv = dev->driver;
 	if (drv) {
+		if (driver_allows_async_probing(drv))
+			async_synchronize_full();
+
 		pm_runtime_get_sync(dev);
 
 		driver_sysfs_remove(dev);
diff --git a/include/linux/device.h b/include/linux/device.h
index 6558af90c8fe..7857b46c548b 100644
--- a/include/linux/device.h
+++ b/include/linux/device.h
@@ -195,6 +195,31 @@ extern int bus_unregister_notifier(struct bus_type *bus,
 extern struct kset *bus_get_kset(struct bus_type *bus);
 extern struct klist *bus_get_device_klist(struct bus_type *bus);
 
+/**
+ * enum probe_type - device driver probe type to try
+ *	Device drivers may opt in for special handling of their
+ *	respective probe routines. This tells the core what to
+ *	expect and prefer.
+ *
+ * @PROBE_SYNCHRONOUS: Default. Drivers expect their probe routines
+ *	to run synchronously with driver and device registration
+ *	(with the exception of -EPROBE_DEFER handling - re-probing
+ *	always ends up being done asynchronously).
+ * @PROBE_PREFER_ASYNCHRONOUS: Drivers for "slow" devices which
+ *	probing order is not essential for booting the system may
+ *	opt into executing their probes asynchronously.
+ *
+ * Note that the end goal is to switch the kernel to use asynchronous
+ * probing by default, so annotating drivers with
+ * %PROBE_PREFER_ASYNCHRONOUS is a temporary measure that allows us
+ * to speed up boot process while we are validating the rest of the
+ * drivers.
+ */
+enum probe_type {
+	PROBE_SYNCHRONOUS,
+	PROBE_PREFER_ASYNCHRONOUS,
+};
+
 /**
  * struct device_driver - The basic device driver structure
  * @name:	Name of the device driver.
@@ -202,6 +227,7 @@ extern struct klist *bus_get_device_klist(struct bus_type *bus);
  * @owner:	The module owner.
  * @mod_name:	Used for built-in modules.
  * @suppress_bind_attrs: Disables bind/unbind via sysfs.
+ * @probe_type:	Type of the probe (synchronous or asynchronous) to use.
  * @of_match_table: The open firmware table.
  * @acpi_match_table: The ACPI match table.
  * @probe:	Called to query the existence of a specific device,
@@ -235,6 +261,7 @@ struct device_driver {
 	const char		*mod_name;	/* used for built-in modules */
 
 	bool suppress_bind_attrs;	/* disables bind/unbind via sysfs */
+	enum probe_type probe_type;
 
 	const struct of_device_id	*of_match_table;
 	const struct acpi_device_id	*acpi_match_table;
@@ -975,6 +1002,7 @@ extern int __must_check device_bind_driver(struct device *dev);
 extern void device_release_driver(struct device *dev);
 extern int  __must_check device_attach(struct device *dev);
 extern int __must_check driver_attach(struct device_driver *drv);
+extern void device_initial_probe(struct device *dev);
 extern int __must_check device_reprobe(struct device *dev);
 
 /*