diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d39fcd73ad17c..9efa7334bdc84 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -11,6 +11,21 @@
 import shutil
 import warnings
 
+try:
+    BUILD_CACHE_DIR=None
+
+    # uncomment to activate the build cache
+    #BUILD_CACHE_DIR="/tmp/.pandas_build_cache/"
+
+    if os.isdir(BUILD_CACHE_DIR):
+        print("--------------------------------------------------------")
+        print("BUILD CACHE ACTIVATED. be careful, this is experimental.")
+        print("--------------------------------------------------------")
+    else:
+        BUILD_CACHE_DIR=None
+except :
+    pass
+
 # may need to work around setuptools bug by providing a fake Pyrex
 try:
     import Cython
@@ -87,8 +102,15 @@
 
 from distutils.extension import Extension
 from distutils.command.build import build
-from distutils.command.build_ext import build_ext
 from distutils.command.sdist import sdist
+from distutils.command.build_ext import build_ext
+
+try:
+    from Cython.Distutils import build_ext
+    #from Cython.Distutils import Extension # to get pyrex debugging symbols
+    cython=True
+except ImportError:
+    cython=False
 
 from os.path import splitext, basename, join as pjoin
 
@@ -314,38 +336,213 @@ def build_extensions(self):
         for ext in self.extensions:
             self.build_extension(ext)
 
+class CompilationCacheMixin(object):
+    def __init__(self,*args,**kwds):
+        cache_dir=kwds.pop("cache_dir",BUILD_CACHE_DIR)
+        self.cache_dir=cache_dir
+        if not os.path.isdir(cache_dir):
+            raise Exception("Error: path to Cache directory [%s] is not a dir");
+
+    def _copy_from_cache(self,hash,target):
+        src=os.path.join(self.cache_dir,hash)
+        if os.path.exists(src):
+            #            print("Cache HIT: asked to copy file %s in %s"  % (src,os.path.abspath(target)))
+            s="."
+            for d in target.split(os.path.sep)[:-1]:
+                s=os.path.join(s,d)
+                if not os.path.exists(s):
+                    os.mkdir(s)
+            shutil.copyfile(src,target)
+
+            return True
+
+        return False
+
+    def _put_to_cache(self,hash,src):
+        target=os.path.join(self.cache_dir,hash)
+        # print( "Cache miss: asked to copy file from %s to %s" % (src,target))
+        s="."
+        for d in target.split(os.path.sep)[:-1]:
+            s=os.path.join(s,d)
+            if not os.path.exists(s):
+                os.mkdir(s)
+        shutil.copyfile(src,target)
+
+    def _hash_obj(self,obj):
+        """
+        you should override this method to provide a sensible
+        implementation of hashing functions for your intended objects
+        """
+        try:
+            return hash(obj)
+        except:
+            raise NotImplementedError("You must override this method")
+
+    # this is missing in 2.5, mro will do the right thing
+    def get_ext_fullpath(self, ext_name):
+        """Returns the path of the filename for a given extension.
+
+        The file is located in `build_lib` or directly in the package
+        (inplace option).
+        """
+        import string
+        # makes sure the extension name is only using dots
+        all_dots = string.maketrans('/'+os.sep, '..')
+        ext_name = ext_name.translate(all_dots)
+
+        fullname = self.get_ext_fullname(ext_name)
+        modpath = fullname.split('.')
+        filename = self.get_ext_filename(ext_name)
+        filename = os.path.split(filename)[-1]
+
+        if not self.inplace:
+            # no further work needed
+            # returning :
+            #   build_dir/package/path/filename
+            filename = os.path.join(*modpath[:-1]+[filename])
+            return os.path.join(self.build_lib, filename)
+
+        # the inplace option requires to find the package directory
+        # using the build_py command for that
+        package = '.'.join(modpath[0:-1])
+        build_py = self.get_finalized_command('build_py')
+        package_dir = os.path.abspath(build_py.get_package_dir(package))
+
+        # returning
+        #   package_dir/filename
+        return os.path.join(package_dir, filename)
+
+class CompilationCacheExtMixin(CompilationCacheMixin):
+    def __init__(self,*args,**kwds):
+        CompilationCacheMixin.__init__(self,*args,**kwds)
+
+    def _hash_file(self,fname):
+        from hashlib import sha1
+        try:
+            hash=sha1()
+            hash.update(self.build_lib.encode('utf-8'))
+            try:
+                if sys.version_info[0] >= 3:
+                    import io
+                    f=io.open(fname,"rb")
+                else:
+                    f=open(fname)
+
+                first_line=f.readline()
+                # ignore cython generation timestamp header
+                if "Generated by Cython" not in first_line.decode('utf-8'):
+                    hash.update(first_line)
+                hash.update(f.read())
+                return hash.hexdigest()
+
+            except:
+                raise
+                return None
+            finally:
+                f.close()
+
+        except IOError:
+            return None
+
+    def _hash_obj(self,ext):
+        from hashlib import sha1
+
+        sources = ext.sources
+        if sources is None or \
+          (not hasattr(sources,'__iter__') ) or \
+          isinstance(sources,str) or \
+          sys.version[0]==2 and isinstance(sources,unicode): #argh
+            return False
+
+        sources = list(sources) + ext.depends
+        hash=sha1()
+        try:
+            for fname in sources:
+                fhash=self._hash_file(fname)
+                if fhash:
+                    hash.update(fhash.encode('utf-8'))
+        except:
+            return None
+
+        return hash.hexdigest()
+
+class CachingBuildExt(build_ext,CompilationCacheExtMixin):
+    def __init__(self,*args,**kwds):
+        CompilationCacheExtMixin.__init__(self,*args,**kwds)
+        kwds.pop("cache_dir",None)
+        build_ext.__init__(self,*args,**kwds)
+
+    def build_extension(self, ext,*args,**kwds):
+        ext_path = self.get_ext_fullpath(ext.name)
+        build_path = os.path.join(self.build_lib,os.path.basename(ext_path))
+
+        hash=self._hash_obj(ext)
+        if  hash and self._copy_from_cache(hash,ext_path):
+            return
+
+        build_ext.build_extension(self,ext,*args,**kwds)
+
+        hash=self._hash_obj(ext)
+        if os.path.exists(build_path):
+            self._put_to_cache(hash,build_path) # build_ext
+        if os.path.exists(ext_path):
+            self._put_to_cache(hash,ext_path) # develop
+
+
+    def cython_sources(self, sources, extension):
+        import re
+        cplus = self.cython_cplus or getattr(extension, 'cython_cplus', 0) or \
+                (extension.language and extension.language.lower() == 'c++')
+        target_ext = '.c'
+        if cplus:
+            target_ext = '.cpp'
+
+        for i,s in enumerate(sources):
+            if not re.search("\.(pyx|pxi|pxd)$",s):
+                continue
+            ext_dir=os.path.dirname(s)
+            ext_basename=re.sub("\.[^\.]+$","",os.path.basename(s))
+            ext_basename +=  target_ext
+            target= os.path.join(ext_dir,ext_basename)
+            hash=self._hash_file(s)
+            sources[i]=target
+            if hash and self._copy_from_cache(hash,target):
+                continue
+            build_ext.cython_sources(self,[s],extension)
+            self._put_to_cache(hash,target)
+
+        return sources
+
+class CythonCommand(build_ext):
+    """Custom distutils command subclassed from Cython.Distutils.build_ext
+    to compile pyx->c, and stop there. All this does is override the
+    C-compile method build_extension() with a no-op."""
+    def build_extension(self, ext):
+        pass
+
+class DummyBuildSrc(Command):
+    """ numpy's build_src command interferes with Cython's build_ext.
+    """
+    user_options = []
+    def initialize_options(self):
+        self.py_modules_dict = {}
+    def finalize_options(self):
+        pass
+    def run(self):
+        pass
+
 cmdclass = {'clean': CleanCommand,
             'build': build}
-
-try:
-    from Cython.Distutils import build_ext
-    #from Cython.Distutils import Extension # to get pyrex debugging symbols
-    cython=True
-except ImportError:
-    cython=False
-    suffix = '.c'
-    cmdclass['build_ext'] = CheckingBuildExt
-else:
+if cython:
     suffix = '.pyx'
-    class CythonCommand(build_ext):
-        """Custom distutils command subclassed from Cython.Distutils.build_ext
-        to compile pyx->c, and stop there. All this does is override the
-        C-compile method build_extension() with a no-op."""
-        def build_extension(self, ext):
-            pass
-
-    class DummyBuildSrc(Command):
-        """ numpy's build_src command interferes with Cython's build_ext.
-        """
-        user_options = []
-        def initialize_options(self):
-            self.py_modules_dict = {}
-        def finalize_options(self):
-            pass
-        def run(self):
-            pass
+    cmdclass['build_ext'] = build_ext
+    if BUILD_CACHE_DIR: # use the cache
+        cmdclass['build_ext'] = CachingBuildExt
+else:
 
+    suffix = '.c'
     cmdclass['build_src'] = DummyBuildSrc
+
     cmdclass['cython'] = CythonCommand
     cmdclass['build_ext'] =  build_ext
     cmdclass['sdist'] =  CheckSDist
diff --git a/tox_prll.ini b/tox_prll.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..a9e54bacd281e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tox_prll.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+# Tox (http://tox.testrun.org/) is a tool for running tests
+# in multiple virtualenvs. This configuration file will run the
+# test suite on all supported python versions. To use it, "pip install tox"
+# and then run "tox" from this directory.
+
+[tox]
+envlist = py25, py26, py27, py31, py32
+sdistsrc = {env:DISTFILE}
+
+[testenv]
+deps =
+    cython
+    numpy >= 1.6.1
+    nose
+    pytz
+
+# cd to anything but the default {toxinidir} which
+# contains the pandas subdirectory and confuses
+# nose away from the fresh install in site-packages
+changedir = {envdir}
+
+commands =
+    # TODO:  --exe because of GH #761
+    {envbindir}/nosetests --exe pandas.tests
+    # cleanup the temp. build dir created by the tox build
+    /bin/rm -rf {toxinidir}/build
+
+    # quietly rollback the install.
+    # Note this line will only be reached if the tests
+    # previous lines succeed (in particular, the tests),
+    # but an uninstall is really only required when
+    # files are removed from source tree, in which case,
+    # stale versions of files will will remain in the venv,
+    # until the next time uninstall is run.
+    #
+    # tox should provide a preinstall-commands hook.
+    pip uninstall pandas -qy
+
+
+[testenv:py25]
+deps =
+    cython
+    numpy >= 1.6.1
+    nose
+    pytz
+    simplejson
+
+[testenv:py26]
+
+[testenv:py27]
+
+[testenv:py31]
+
+[testenv:py32]
diff --git a/tox_prll.sh b/tox_prll.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..66311aaf1991e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tox_prll.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# tox has an undocumented (as of 1.4.2) config option called "sdistsrc"
+# which can make a run use a pre-prepared sdist file.
+# we prepare the sdist once , then launch the tox runs in parallel using it.
+#
+# currently (tox 1.4.2) We have to skip sdist generation when running in parallel
+# or we get a race.
+#
+
+
+ENVS=$(cat tox.ini | grep envlist | tr  "," " " | cut -d " " -f 3-)
+TOX_INI_PAR="tox_prll.ini"
+
+echo "[Creating distfile]"
+tox --sdistonly
+export DISTFILE="$(find .tox/dist -type f )"
+
+echo -e "[Starting tests]\n"
+for e in $ENVS; do
+    echo "[launching tox for $e]"
+    tox -c "$TOX_INI_PAR" -e "$e" &
+done