diff --git a/hw/semihosting/console.c b/hw/semihosting/console.c
index b4b17c8afb..4db68d6227 100644
--- a/hw/semihosting/console.c
+++ b/hw/semihosting/console.c
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@
 #include "exec/gdbstub.h"
 #include "qemu/log.h"
 #include "chardev/char.h"
+#include <pthread.h>
+#include "chardev/char-fe.h"
+#include "sysemu/sysemu.h"
+#include "qemu/main-loop.h"
+#include "qapi/error.h"
+#include "qemu/fifo8.h"
 
 int qemu_semihosting_log_out(const char *s, int len)
 {
@@ -98,3 +104,69 @@ void qemu_semihosting_console_outc(CPUArchState *env, target_ulong addr)
                       __func__, addr);
     }
 }
+
+#define FIFO_SIZE   1024
+
+typedef struct SemihostingConsole {
+    CharBackend         backend;
+    pthread_mutex_t     mutex;
+    pthread_cond_t      cond;
+    bool                got;
+    Fifo8               fifo;
+} SemihostingConsole;
+
+static SemihostingConsole console = {
+    .mutex = PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER,
+    .cond = PTHREAD_COND_INITIALIZER
+};
+
+static int console_can_read(void *opaque)
+{
+    SemihostingConsole *c = opaque;
+    int ret;
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&c->mutex);
+    ret = (int) fifo8_num_free(&c->fifo);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&c->mutex);
+    return ret;
+}
+
+static void console_read(void *opaque, const uint8_t *buf, int size)
+{
+    SemihostingConsole *c = opaque;
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&c->mutex);
+    while (size-- && !fifo8_is_full(&c->fifo)) {
+        fifo8_push(&c->fifo, *buf++);
+    }
+    pthread_cond_broadcast(&c->cond);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&c->mutex);
+}
+
+target_ulong qemu_semihosting_console_inc(CPUArchState *env)
+{
+    uint8_t ch;
+    SemihostingConsole *c = &console;
+    qemu_mutex_unlock_iothread();
+    pthread_mutex_lock(&c->mutex);
+    while (fifo8_is_empty(&c->fifo)) {
+        pthread_cond_wait(&c->cond, &c->mutex);
+    }
+    ch = fifo8_pop(&c->fifo);
+    pthread_mutex_unlock(&c->mutex);
+    qemu_mutex_lock_iothread();
+    return (target_ulong) ch;
+}
+
+void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void)
+{
+    Chardev *chr = semihosting_get_chardev();
+
+    if  (chr) {
+        fifo8_create(&console.fifo, FIFO_SIZE);
+        qemu_chr_fe_init(&console.backend, chr, &error_abort);
+        qemu_chr_fe_set_handlers(&console.backend,
+                                 console_can_read,
+                                 console_read,
+                                 NULL, NULL, &console,
+                                 NULL, true);
+    }
+}
diff --git a/include/hw/semihosting/console.h b/include/hw/semihosting/console.h
index 9be9754bcd..f7d5905b41 100644
--- a/include/hw/semihosting/console.h
+++ b/include/hw/semihosting/console.h
@@ -37,6 +37,18 @@ int qemu_semihosting_console_outs(CPUArchState *env, target_ulong s);
  */
 void qemu_semihosting_console_outc(CPUArchState *env, target_ulong c);
 
+/**
+ * qemu_semihosting_console_inc:
+ * @env: CPUArchState
+ *
+ * Receive single character from debug console. This
+ * may be the remote gdb session if a softmmu guest is currently being
+ * debugged.
+ *
+ * Returns: character read or -1 on error
+ */
+target_ulong qemu_semihosting_console_inc(CPUArchState *env);
+
 /**
  * qemu_semihosting_log_out:
  * @s: pointer to string
diff --git a/include/hw/semihosting/semihost.h b/include/hw/semihosting/semihost.h
index 60fc42d851..b8ce5117ae 100644
--- a/include/hw/semihosting/semihost.h
+++ b/include/hw/semihosting/semihost.h
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ static inline Chardev *semihosting_get_chardev(void)
 {
     return NULL;
 }
+static inline void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void)
+{
+}
 #else /* !CONFIG_USER_ONLY */
 bool semihosting_enabled(void);
 SemihostingTarget semihosting_get_target(void);
@@ -68,6 +71,7 @@ Chardev *semihosting_get_chardev(void);
 void qemu_semihosting_enable(void);
 int qemu_semihosting_config_options(const char *opt);
 void qemu_semihosting_connect_chardevs(void);
+void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void);
 #endif /* CONFIG_USER_ONLY */
 
 #endif /* SEMIHOST_H */
diff --git a/linux-user/arm/semihost.c b/linux-user/arm/semihost.c
index a16b525eec..4f998d6220 100644
--- a/linux-user/arm/semihost.c
+++ b/linux-user/arm/semihost.c
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 #include "cpu.h"
 #include "hw/semihosting/console.h"
 #include "qemu.h"
+#include <poll.h>
 
 int qemu_semihosting_console_outs(CPUArchState *env, target_ulong addr)
 {
@@ -47,3 +48,25 @@ void qemu_semihosting_console_outc(CPUArchState *env, target_ulong addr)
         }
     }
 }
+
+target_ulong qemu_semihosting_console_inc(CPUArchState *env)
+{
+    uint8_t c;
+    struct pollfd pollfd = {
+        .fd = STDIN_FILENO,
+        .events = POLLIN
+    };
+
+    if (poll(&pollfd, 1, -1) != 1) {
+        qemu_log_mask(LOG_UNIMP, "%s: unexpected read from stdin failure",
+                      __func__);
+        return (target_ulong) -1;
+    }
+
+    if (read(STDIN_FILENO, &c, 1) != 1) {
+        qemu_log_mask(LOG_UNIMP, "%s: unexpected read from stdin failure",
+                      __func__);
+        return (target_ulong) -1;
+    }
+    return (target_ulong) c;
+}
diff --git a/stubs/semihost.c b/stubs/semihost.c
index f90589259c..1d8b37f7b2 100644
--- a/stubs/semihost.c
+++ b/stubs/semihost.c
@@ -69,3 +69,7 @@ void semihosting_arg_fallback(const char *file, const char *cmd)
 void qemu_semihosting_connect_chardevs(void)
 {
 }
+
+void qemu_semihosting_console_init(void)
+{
+}
diff --git a/target/arm/arm-semi.c b/target/arm/arm-semi.c
index 6f7b6d801b..47d61f6fe1 100644
--- a/target/arm/arm-semi.c
+++ b/target/arm/arm-semi.c
@@ -802,8 +802,7 @@ target_ulong do_arm_semihosting(CPUARMState *env)
 
         return guestfd_fns[gf->type].readfn(cpu, gf, arg1, len);
     case TARGET_SYS_READC:
-        qemu_log_mask(LOG_UNIMP, "%s: SYS_READC not implemented", __func__);
-        return 0;
+        return qemu_semihosting_console_inc(env);
     case TARGET_SYS_ISTTY:
         GET_ARG(0);
 
diff --git a/vl.c b/vl.c
index 4489cfb2bb..7ea8a907fd 100644
--- a/vl.c
+++ b/vl.c
@@ -4284,6 +4284,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)
     qemu_opts_foreach(qemu_find_opts("mon"),
                       mon_init_func, NULL, &error_fatal);
 
+    /* connect semihosting console input if requested */
+    qemu_semihosting_console_init();
+
     if (foreach_device_config(DEV_SERIAL, serial_parse) < 0)
         exit(1);
     if (foreach_device_config(DEV_PARALLEL, parallel_parse) < 0)
