diff --git a/meta/classes/image_types.bbclass b/meta/classes/image_types.bbclass
index 70bd315306..b12420310f 100644
--- a/meta/classes/image_types.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/image_types.bbclass
@@ -56,7 +56,6 @@ def imagetypes_getdepends(d):
 
 XZ_COMPRESSION_LEVEL ?= "-3"
 XZ_INTEGRITY_CHECK ?= "crc32"
-XZ_THREADS ?= "-T 0"
 
 ZIP_COMPRESSION_LEVEL ?= "-9"
 
@@ -152,12 +151,12 @@ UBI_VOLNAME ?= "${MACHINE}-rootfs"
 multiubi_mkfs() {
 	local mkubifs_args="$1"
 	local ubinize_args="$2"
-    
+
         # Added prompt error message for ubi and ubifs image creation.
         if [ -z "$mkubifs_args" ] || [ -z "$ubinize_args" ]; then
             bbfatal "MKUBIFS_ARGS and UBINIZE_ARGS have to be set, see http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/ubifs.html for details"
         fi
-    
+
 	if [ -z "$3" ]; then
 		local vname=""
 	else
@@ -284,7 +283,7 @@ CONVERSIONTYPES = "gz bz2 lzma xz lz4 lzo zip sum md5sum sha1sum sha224sum sha25
 CONVERSION_CMD_lzma = "lzma -k -f -7 ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}"
 CONVERSION_CMD_gz = "pigz -f -9 -n -c ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type} > ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}.gz"
 CONVERSION_CMD_bz2 = "pbzip2 -f -k ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}"
-CONVERSION_CMD_xz = "xz -f -k -c ${XZ_COMPRESSION_LEVEL} ${XZ_THREADS} --check=${XZ_INTEGRITY_CHECK} ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type} > ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}.xz"
+CONVERSION_CMD_xz = "xz -f -k -c ${XZ_COMPRESSION_LEVEL} ${XZ_DEFAULTS} --check=${XZ_INTEGRITY_CHECK} ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type} > ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}.xz"
 CONVERSION_CMD_lz4 = "lz4 -9 -z -l ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type} ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}.lz4"
 CONVERSION_CMD_lzo = "lzop -9 ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}"
 CONVERSION_CMD_zip = "zip ${ZIP_COMPRESSION_LEVEL} ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}.zip ${IMAGE_NAME}${IMAGE_NAME_SUFFIX}.${type}"
@@ -317,7 +316,7 @@ CONVERSION_DEPENDS_qcow2 = "qemu-native"
 RUNNABLE_IMAGE_TYPES ?= "ext2 ext3 ext4"
 RUNNABLE_MACHINE_PATTERNS ?= "qemu"
 
-DEPLOYABLE_IMAGE_TYPES ?= "hddimg iso" 
+DEPLOYABLE_IMAGE_TYPES ?= "hddimg iso"
 
 # The IMAGE_TYPES_MASKED variable will be used to mask out from the IMAGE_FSTYPES,
 # images that will not be built at do_rootfs time: vmdk, vdi, qcow2, hdddirect, hddimg, iso, etc.
diff --git a/meta/classes/package_ipk.bbclass b/meta/classes/package_ipk.bbclass
index 508b7dcaff..d1b317b42b 100644
--- a/meta/classes/package_ipk.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/package_ipk.bbclass
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ IPKGCONF_SDK =  "${WORKDIR}/opkg-sdk.conf"
 PKGWRITEDIRIPK = "${WORKDIR}/deploy-ipks"
 
 # Program to be used to build opkg packages
-OPKGBUILDCMD ??= 'opkg-build -Z xz -a "--threads 0"'
+OPKGBUILDCMD ??= 'opkg-build -Z xz -a "${XZ_DEFAULTS}"'
 
 OPKG_ARGS += "--force_postinstall --prefer-arch-to-version"
 OPKG_ARGS += "${@['', '--no-install-recommends'][d.getVar("NO_RECOMMENDATIONS") == "1"]}"
diff --git a/meta/classes/populate_sdk_base.bbclass b/meta/classes/populate_sdk_base.bbclass
index 80fa443e4c..ebc30d39b3 100644
--- a/meta/classes/populate_sdk_base.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/populate_sdk_base.bbclass
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ fakeroot tar_sdk() {
 	# Package it up
 	mkdir -p ${SDKDEPLOYDIR}
 	cd ${SDK_OUTPUT}/${SDKPATH}
-	tar ${SDKTAROPTS} -cf - . | xz -T 0 > ${SDKDEPLOYDIR}/${TOOLCHAIN_OUTPUTNAME}.tar.xz
+	tar ${SDKTAROPTS} -cf - . | xz ${XZ_DEFAULTS} > ${SDKDEPLOYDIR}/${TOOLCHAIN_OUTPUTNAME}.tar.xz
 }
 
 TOOLCHAIN_SHAR_EXT_TMPL ?= "${COREBASE}/meta/files/toolchain-shar-extract.sh"
diff --git a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
index 9452d5ac4f..3f5d84d348 100644
--- a/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
+++ b/meta/conf/bitbake.conf
@@ -791,6 +791,9 @@ BB_NUMBER_THREADS ?= "${@oe.utils.cpu_count()}"
 # Default to setting automatically based on cpu count
 PARALLEL_MAKE ?= "-j ${@oe.utils.cpu_count()}"
 
+# Default parallelism and resource usage for xz
+XZ_DEFAULTS ?= "--memlimit=30% --threads=${BB_NUMBER_THREADS}"
+
 ##################################################################
 # Magic Cookie for SANITY CHECK
 ##################################################################
