diff --git a/io-streams.cabal b/io-streams.cabal
--- a/io-streams.cabal
+++ b/io-streams.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:                io-streams
-Version:             1.1.4.0
+Version:             1.1.4.1
 License:             BSD3
 License-file:        LICENSE
 Category:            Data, Network, IO-Streams
@@ -80,6 +80,11 @@
     * support for spawning processes and communicating with them using streams.
   .
   /ChangeLog/
+  .
+    [@1.1.4.1@] @System.IO.Streams.Network@: scalability improvement: buffers
+                for socket reads are now allocated by system malloc rather than
+                by pinned pointers in GHC (currently pinned pointer allocation
+                takes a global lock).
   .
     [@1.1.4.0@] Widened @attoparsec@ and @text@ library dependencies to allow
                 the latest versions.
diff --git a/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs b/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs
--- a/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs
+++ b/src/System/IO/Streams/Network.hs
@@ -6,20 +6,24 @@
   ) where
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-import           Data.ByteString.Char8      (ByteString)
+import           Control.Exception          (catch)
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Char8      as S
-import           Foreign.Storable           (sizeOf)
+import           Data.ByteString.Internal   as S
+import           Foreign.ForeignPtr         (newForeignPtr, withForeignPtr)
+import           Foreign.Marshal.Alloc      (finalizerFree, mallocBytes)
 import           Network.Socket             (Socket)
+import qualified Network.Socket             as N
 import qualified Network.Socket.ByteString  as N
+import           Prelude                    (IO, Int, Maybe (..), return,
+                                             ($!), (<=), (>>=))
+import           System.IO.Error            (ioError, isEOFError)
 import           System.IO.Streams.Internal (InputStream, OutputStream)
 import qualified System.IO.Streams.Internal as Streams
 
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 bUFSIZ :: Int
-bUFSIZ = 8192 - overhead
-  where
-    overhead = 4 * (sizeOf $! (0 :: Int))
+bUFSIZ = 4096
 
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -46,9 +50,16 @@
     return $! (is, os)
 
   where
+    recv buf = N.recvBuf socket buf bufsiz `catch` \ioe ->
+               if isEOFError ioe then return 0 else ioError ioe
+
+    mkFp = mallocBytes bufsiz >>= newForeignPtr finalizerFree
     input = do
-        s <- N.recv socket bufsiz
-        return $! if S.null s then Nothing else Just s
+        fp <- mkFp
+        n  <- withForeignPtr fp recv
+        return $! if n <= 0
+                    then Nothing
+                    else Just $! S.fromForeignPtr fp 0 n
 
     output Nothing  = return $! ()
     output (Just s) = if S.null s then return $! () else N.sendAll socket s