diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index 138f6664b2e2..3f9a885c7b6a 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -432,6 +432,10 @@
 			embedded devices based on command line input.
 			See Documentation/block/cmdline-partition.txt
 
+	boot_cpus=	[SMP]
+			Rather than attempting to online all possible CPUs at
+			boot time, only online the specified set of CPUs.
+
 	boot_delay=	Milliseconds to delay each printk during boot.
 			Values larger than 10 seconds (10000) are changed to
 			no delay (0).
diff --git a/kernel/smp.c b/kernel/smp.c
index d155374632eb..3f3899094165 100644
--- a/kernel/smp.c
+++ b/kernel/smp.c
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ static DEFINE_PER_CPU_SHARED_ALIGNED(struct call_function_data, cfd_data);
 static DEFINE_PER_CPU_SHARED_ALIGNED(struct llist_head, call_single_queue);
 
 static void flush_smp_call_function_queue(bool warn_cpu_offline);
+/* CPU mask indicating which CPUs to bring online during smp_init() */
+static bool have_boot_cpu_mask;
+static cpumask_var_t boot_cpu_mask;
 
 int smpcfd_prepare_cpu(unsigned int cpu)
 {
@@ -550,6 +553,19 @@ static int __init maxcpus(char *str)
 
 early_param("maxcpus", maxcpus);
 
+static int __init boot_cpus(char *str)
+{
+	alloc_bootmem_cpumask_var(&boot_cpu_mask);
+	if (cpulist_parse(str, boot_cpu_mask) < 0) {
+		pr_warn("SMP: Incorrect boot_cpus cpumask\n");
+		return -EINVAL;
+	}
+	have_boot_cpu_mask = true;
+	return 0;
+}
+
+early_param("boot_cpus", boot_cpus);
+
 /* Setup number of possible processor ids */
 unsigned int nr_cpu_ids __read_mostly = NR_CPUS;
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(nr_cpu_ids);
@@ -560,6 +576,20 @@ void __init setup_nr_cpu_ids(void)
 	nr_cpu_ids = find_last_bit(cpumask_bits(cpu_possible_mask),NR_CPUS) + 1;
 }
 
+static inline bool boot_cpu(int cpu)
+{
+	if (!have_boot_cpu_mask)
+		return true;
+
+	return cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, boot_cpu_mask);
+}
+
+static inline void free_boot_cpu_mask(void)
+{
+	if (have_boot_cpu_mask)	/* Allocated from boot_cpus() */
+		free_bootmem_cpumask_var(boot_cpu_mask);
+}
+
 /* Called by boot processor to activate the rest. */
 void __init smp_init(void)
 {
@@ -575,9 +605,10 @@ void __init smp_init(void)
 	for_each_present_cpu(cpu) {
 		if (num_online_cpus() >= setup_max_cpus)
 			break;
-		if (!cpu_online(cpu))
+		if (!cpu_online(cpu) && boot_cpu(cpu))
 			cpu_up(cpu);
 	}
+	free_boot_cpu_mask();
 
 	num_nodes = num_online_nodes();
 	num_cpus  = num_online_cpus();