AnyEvent::Task is a pre-fork-on-demand server (AnyEvent::Task::Server) combined with a persistent worker-pooled client (AnyEvent::Task::Client). In a nutshell, a synchronous worker process is forked off by a server whenever a client asks for one. The client keeps as many of these workers around as it wants and delegates tasks to them asynchronously. WWW: http://search.cpan.org/dist/AnyEvent-Task/