diff --git a/arch/powerpc/mm/mem.c b/arch/powerpc/mm/mem.c
index 04ccb274a620..9a6afd9f3f9b 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/mm/mem.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/mm/mem.c
@@ -344,6 +344,14 @@ void __init mem_init(void)
 	BUILD_BUG_ON(MMU_PAGE_COUNT > 16);
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_SWIOTLB
+	/*
+	 * Some platforms (e.g. 85xx) limit DMA-able memory way below
+	 * 4G. We force memblock to bottom-up mode to ensure that the
+	 * memory allocated in swiotlb_init() is DMA-able.
+	 * As it's the last memblock allocation, no need to reset it
+	 * back to to-down.
+	 */
+	memblock_set_bottom_up(true);
 	swiotlb_init(0);
 #endif