diff --git a/common/ImageBuffer.cpp b/common/ImageBuffer.cpp
index 3145998b..5b2809b3 100644
--- a/common/ImageBuffer.cpp
+++ b/common/ImageBuffer.cpp
@@ -6,28 +6,39 @@
 #include "JFJochException.h"
 #include "ZeroCopyReturnValue.h"
 
+#include <algorithm>
 #include <cstdlib>
+#include <cstring>
+#include <thread>
+#include <vector>
 
-#ifdef JFJOCH_USE_NUMA
-#include <numa.h>
-#endif
+namespace {
+    // Zero the buffer in parallel so that each page is first-touched by whichever NUMA node the
+    // scheduler placed the zeroing thread on. With RAM headroom this approximates an interleaved
+    // placement for the random-access ring buffer, while also slashing the one-time cost of
+    // faulting in a 150-200 GB allocation. Replaces numa_alloc_interleaved + a single-threaded
+    // memset, so this file no longer needs libnuma.
+    void parallel_first_touch(uint8_t *buffer, size_t buffer_size) {
+        const unsigned n = std::max(1u, std::thread::hardware_concurrency());
+        const size_t chunk = (buffer_size + n - 1) / n;
 
+        std::vector<std::thread> threads;
+        for (size_t begin = 0; begin < buffer_size; begin += chunk) {
+            size_t len = std::min(chunk, buffer_size - begin);
+            threads.emplace_back([=] { memset(buffer + begin, 0, len); });
+        }
+        for (auto &t : threads)
+            t.join();
+    }
+}
 
 ImageBuffer::ImageBuffer(size_t buffer_size_bytes)
         : buffer_size(buffer_size_bytes) {
-
-#ifdef JFJOCH_USE_NUMA
-    // Interleave the buffer across NUMA nodes - throughput-critical path (receiver), Linux-only.
-    buffer = static_cast<uint8_t *>(numa_alloc_interleaved(buffer_size));
-#else
-    // The non-NUMA mapping carried no huge-page / mbind flags, so a plain heap allocation is
-    // equivalent (and portable). The buffer is zeroed below.
     buffer = static_cast<uint8_t *>(std::malloc(buffer_size));
-#endif
     if (buffer == nullptr)
         throw JFJochException(JFJochExceptionCategory::MemAllocFailed,
                               "Failed to allocate image buffer");
-    memset(buffer, 0, buffer_size);
+    parallel_first_touch(buffer, buffer_size);
 }
 
 ImageBuffer::~ImageBuffer() {
@@ -35,11 +46,7 @@ ImageBuffer::~ImageBuffer() {
     std::unique_lock ul(m);
     FinalizeInternal(ul);
 
-#ifdef JFJOCH_USE_NUMA
-    numa_free(buffer, buffer_size);
-#else
     std::free(buffer);
-#endif
 }
 
 void ImageBuffer::StartMeasurement(size_t in_location_size) {