diff --git a/arch/mips/kernel/setup.c b/arch/mips/kernel/setup.c
index 7cc1d29334ee..2c3b89a65317 100644
--- a/arch/mips/kernel/setup.c
+++ b/arch/mips/kernel/setup.c
@@ -847,7 +847,17 @@ static void __init arch_mem_init(char **cmdline_p)
 				BOOTMEM_DEFAULT);
 #endif
 	device_tree_init();
+
+	/*
+	 * In order to reduce the possibility of kernel panic when failed to
+	 * get IO TLB memory under CONFIG_SWIOTLB, it is better to allocate
+	 * low memory as small as possible before plat_swiotlb_setup(), so
+	 * make sparse_init() using top-down allocation.
+	 */
+	memblock_set_bottom_up(false);
 	sparse_init();
+	memblock_set_bottom_up(true);
+
 	plat_swiotlb_setup();
 
 	dma_contiguous_reserve(PFN_PHYS(max_low_pfn));