diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt b/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt
index 94bbc27..9d620c1 100644
--- a/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt
@@ -50,16 +50,17 @@
   			cpu_possible_map = cpu_present_map + additional_cpus
 
 (*) Option valid only for following architectures
-- x86_64, ia64
+- ia64
 
-ia64 and x86_64 use the number of disabled local apics in ACPI tables MADT
-to determine the number of potentially hot-pluggable cpus. The implementation
-should only rely on this to count the # of cpus, but *MUST* not rely on the
-apicid values in those tables for disabled apics. In the event BIOS doesn't
-mark such hot-pluggable cpus as disabled entries, one could use this
-parameter "additional_cpus=x" to represent those cpus in the cpu_possible_map.
+ia64 uses the number of disabled local apics in ACPI tables MADT to
+determine the number of potentially hot-pluggable cpus. The implementation
+should only rely on this to count the # of cpus, but *MUST* not rely
+on the apicid values in those tables for disabled apics. In the event
+BIOS doesn't mark such hot-pluggable cpus as disabled entries, one could
+use this parameter "additional_cpus=x" to represent those cpus in the
+cpu_possible_map.
 
-possible_cpus=n		[s390 only] use this to set hotpluggable cpus.
+possible_cpus=n		[s390,x86_64] use this to set hotpluggable cpus.
 			This option sets possible_cpus bits in
 			cpu_possible_map. Thus keeping the numbers of bits set
 			constant even if the machine gets rebooted.
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/apic.c b/arch/x86/kernel/apic.c
index 93cf2d1..f7a32a3 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/apic.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/apic.c
@@ -1819,28 +1819,32 @@
 void __cpuinit generic_processor_info(int apicid, int version)
 {
 	int cpu;
-	cpumask_t tmp_map;
 
 	/*
 	 * Validate version
 	 */
 	if (version == 0x0) {
 		pr_warning("BIOS bug, APIC version is 0 for CPU#%d! "
-			"fixing up to 0x10. (tell your hw vendor)\n",
-			version);
+			   "fixing up to 0x10. (tell your hw vendor)\n",
+				version);
 		version = 0x10;
 	}
 	apic_version[apicid] = version;
 
-	if (num_processors >= NR_CPUS) {
-		pr_warning("WARNING: NR_CPUS limit of %i reached."
-			"  Processor ignored.\n", NR_CPUS);
+	if (num_processors >= nr_cpu_ids) {
+		int max = nr_cpu_ids;
+		int thiscpu = max + disabled_cpus;
+
+		pr_warning(
+			"ACPI: NR_CPUS/possible_cpus limit of %i reached."
+			"  Processor %d/0x%x ignored.\n", max, thiscpu, apicid);
+
+		disabled_cpus++;
 		return;
 	}
 
 	num_processors++;
-	cpus_complement(tmp_map, cpu_present_map);
-	cpu = first_cpu(tmp_map);
+	cpu = cpumask_next_zero(-1, cpu_present_mask);
 
 	physid_set(apicid, phys_cpu_present_map);
 	if (apicid == boot_cpu_physical_apicid) {
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/smpboot.c b/arch/x86/kernel/smpboot.c
index be94667..1a9941b 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/smpboot.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/smpboot.c
@@ -1252,6 +1252,15 @@
 	check_nmi_watchdog();
 }
 
+static int __initdata setup_possible_cpus = -1;
+static int __init _setup_possible_cpus(char *str)
+{
+	get_option(&str, &setup_possible_cpus);
+	return 0;
+}
+early_param("possible_cpus", _setup_possible_cpus);
+
+
 /*
  * cpu_possible_map should be static, it cannot change as cpu's
  * are onlined, or offlined. The reason is per-cpu data-structures
@@ -1264,7 +1273,7 @@
  *
  * Three ways to find out the number of additional hotplug CPUs:
  * - If the BIOS specified disabled CPUs in ACPI/mptables use that.
- * - The user can overwrite it with additional_cpus=NUM
+ * - The user can overwrite it with possible_cpus=NUM
  * - Otherwise don't reserve additional CPUs.
  * We do this because additional CPUs waste a lot of memory.
  * -AK
@@ -1277,9 +1286,17 @@
 	if (!num_processors)
 		num_processors = 1;
 
-	possible = num_processors + disabled_cpus;
-	if (possible > NR_CPUS)
-		possible = NR_CPUS;
+	if (setup_possible_cpus == -1)
+		possible = num_processors + disabled_cpus;
+	else
+		possible = setup_possible_cpus;
+
+	if (possible > CONFIG_NR_CPUS) {
+		printk(KERN_WARNING
+			"%d Processors exceeds NR_CPUS limit of %d\n",
+			possible, CONFIG_NR_CPUS);
+		possible = CONFIG_NR_CPUS;
+	}
 
 	printk(KERN_INFO "SMP: Allowing %d CPUs, %d hotplug CPUs\n",
 		possible, max_t(int, possible - num_processors, 0));