diff --git a/include/linux/cpumask.h b/include/linux/cpumask.h
index 2f6622cead1f..1b442fb2001f 100644
--- a/include/linux/cpumask.h
+++ b/include/linux/cpumask.h
@@ -35,16 +35,20 @@ typedef struct cpumask { DECLARE_BITMAP(bits, NR_CPUS); } cpumask_t;
  */
 #define cpumask_pr_args(maskp)		nr_cpu_ids, cpumask_bits(maskp)
 
-#if NR_CPUS == 1
-#define nr_cpu_ids		1U
+#if (NR_CPUS == 1) || defined(CONFIG_FORCE_NR_CPUS)
+#define nr_cpu_ids ((unsigned int)NR_CPUS)
 #else
 extern unsigned int nr_cpu_ids;
+#endif
 
 static inline void set_nr_cpu_ids(unsigned int nr)
 {
+#if (NR_CPUS == 1) || defined(CONFIG_FORCE_NR_CPUS)
+	WARN_ON(nr != nr_cpu_ids);
+#else
 	nr_cpu_ids = nr;
-}
 #endif
+}
 
 /* Deprecated. Always use nr_cpu_ids. */
 #define nr_cpumask_bits	nr_cpu_ids
diff --git a/kernel/smp.c b/kernel/smp.c
index 150310a0947a..661d09ae5d6a 100644
--- a/kernel/smp.c
+++ b/kernel/smp.c
@@ -1088,7 +1088,7 @@ static int __init maxcpus(char *str)
 
 early_param("maxcpus", maxcpus);
 
-#if (NR_CPUS > 1)
+#if (NR_CPUS > 1) && !defined(CONFIG_FORCE_NR_CPUS)
 /* Setup number of possible processor ids */
 unsigned int nr_cpu_ids __read_mostly = NR_CPUS;
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(nr_cpu_ids);
diff --git a/lib/Kconfig b/lib/Kconfig
index dc1ab2ed1dc6..77ead982c8b9 100644
--- a/lib/Kconfig
+++ b/lib/Kconfig
@@ -527,6 +527,15 @@ config CPUMASK_OFFSTACK
 	  them on the stack.  This is a bit more expensive, but avoids
 	  stack overflow.
 
+config FORCE_NR_CPUS
+       bool "NR_CPUS is set to an actual number of CPUs"
+       depends on SMP
+       help
+         Say Yes if you have NR_CPUS set to an actual number of possible
+         CPUs in your system, not to a default value. This forces the core
+         code to rely on compile-time value and optimize kernel routines
+         better.
+
 config CPU_RMAP
 	bool
 	depends on SMP