diff --git a/include/asm-generic/hardirq.h b/include/asm-generic/hardirq.h
index 3d5d2c906ab3..23bb4dad4962 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/hardirq.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/hardirq.h
@@ -11,19 +11,6 @@ typedef struct {
 
 #include <linux/irq_cpustat.h>	/* Standard mappings for irq_cpustat_t above */
 
-#ifndef HARDIRQ_BITS
-#define HARDIRQ_BITS	8
-#endif
-
-/*
- * The hardirq mask has to be large enough to have
- * space for potentially all IRQ sources in the system
- * nesting on a single CPU:
- */
-#if (1 << HARDIRQ_BITS) < NR_IRQS
-# error HARDIRQ_BITS is too low!
-#endif
-
 #ifndef ack_bad_irq
 static inline void ack_bad_irq(unsigned int irq)
 {