diff --git a/arch/Config.in b/arch/Config.in
index c2dc9e809c..c2147a4049 100644
--- a/arch/Config.in
+++ b/arch/Config.in
@@ -207,6 +207,12 @@ config BR2_GCC_TARGET_FPU
 config BR2_GCC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI
 	string
 
+# The value of this option will be passed as --with-mode=<value> when
+# building gcc (internal backend) or -m<value> in the toolchain
+# wrapper (external toolchain)
+config BR2_GCC_TARGET_MODE
+	string
+
 # Set up target binary format
 choice
 	prompt "Target Binary Format"
diff --git a/arch/Config.in.arm b/arch/Config.in.arm
index 2b493c0933..94c32c9672 100644
--- a/arch/Config.in.arm
+++ b/arch/Config.in.arm
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ config BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_VFPV4
 	bool
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_VFPV3
 
+config BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_THUMB2
+	bool
+
 choice
 	prompt "Target Architecture Variant"
 	depends on BR2_arm || BR2_armeb
@@ -65,22 +68,27 @@ config BR2_cortex_a5
 	bool "cortex-A5"
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_MAYBE_HAS_NEON
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_MAYBE_HAS_VFPV4
+	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_THUMB2
 config BR2_cortex_a7
 	bool "cortex-A7"
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_NEON
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_VFPV4
+	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_THUMB2
 config BR2_cortex_a8
 	bool "cortex-A8"
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_NEON
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_VFPV3
+	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_THUMB2
 config BR2_cortex_a9
 	bool "cortex-A9"
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_MAYBE_HAS_NEON
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_MAYBE_HAS_VFPV3
+	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_THUMB2
 config BR2_cortex_a15
 	bool "cortex-A15"
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_NEON
 	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_VFPV4
+	select BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_THUMB2
 config BR2_fa526
 	bool "fa526/626"
 config BR2_pj4
@@ -275,6 +283,30 @@ config BR2_ARM_FPU_NEON_VFPV4
 
 endchoice
 
+choice
+	prompt "ARM instruction set"
+	depends on BR2_ARM_CPU_HAS_THUMB2
+
+config BR2_ARM_INSTRUCTIONS_ARM_CHOICE
+	bool "ARM"
+	help
+	  This option instructs the compiler to generate regular ARM
+	  instructions, that are all 32 bits wide.
+
+config BR2_ARM_INSTRUCTIONS_THUMB2
+	bool "Thumb2"
+	help
+	  This option instructions the compiler to generate Thumb2
+	  instructions, which allows to mix 16 bits instructions and
+	  32 bits instructions. This generally provides a much smaller
+	  compiled binary size.
+
+endchoice
+
+config BR2_ARM_INSTRUCTIONS_ARM
+	def_bool y
+	depends on !BR2_ARM_INSTRUCTIONS_THUMB2
+
 config BR2_ARCH
 	default "arm"	if BR2_arm
 	default "armeb"	if BR2_armeb
@@ -344,3 +376,7 @@ config BR2_GCC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI
 	default "soft"		if BR2_ARM_SOFT_FLOAT
 	default "softfp"	if !BR2_ARM_SOFT_FLOAT && BR2_ARM_EABI
 	default "hard"		if !BR2_ARM_SOFT_FLOAT && BR2_ARM_EABIHF
+
+config BR2_GCC_TARGET_MODE
+	default "arm"		if BR2_ARM_INSTRUCTIONS_ARM
+	default "thumb"		if BR2_ARM_INSTRUCTIONS_THUMB2
diff --git a/package/gcc/gcc.mk b/package/gcc/gcc.mk
index bfc41a4c6e..ae2a363510 100644
--- a/package/gcc/gcc.mk
+++ b/package/gcc/gcc.mk
@@ -177,6 +177,11 @@ ifneq ($(GCC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI),)
 HOST_GCC_COMMON_CONF_OPT += --with-float=$(GCC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI)
 endif
 
+GCC_TARGET_MODE = $(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_MODE))
+ifneq ($(GCC_TARGET_MODE),)
+HOST_GCC_COMMON_CONF_OPT += --with-mode=$(GCC_TARGET_MODE)
+endif
+
 # Branding works on >= 4.3
 ifneq ($(findstring x4.2.,x$(GCC_VERSION)),x4.2.)
 HOST_GCC_COMMON_CONF_OPT += \
diff --git a/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-tool.mk b/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-tool.mk
index 67fc40d095..b9ae68f0a3 100644
--- a/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-tool.mk
+++ b/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-tool.mk
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ CC_TARGET_ARCH_:=$(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_ARCH))
 CC_TARGET_ABI_:=$(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_ABI))
 CC_TARGET_FPU_:=$(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_FPU))
 CC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI_:=$(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI))
+CC_TARGET_MODE_:=$(call qstrip,$(BR2_GCC_TARGET_MODE))
 
 # march/mtune/floating point mode needs to be passed to the external toolchain
 # to select the right multilib variant
@@ -178,6 +179,10 @@ ifneq ($(CC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI_),)
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_CFLAGS += -mfloat-abi=$(CC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI_)
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_WRAPPER_ARGS += -DBR_FLOAT_ABI='"$(CC_TARGET_FLOAT_ABI_)"'
 endif
+ifneq ($(CC_TARGET_MODE_),)
+TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_CFLAGS += -m$(CC_TARGET_MODE_)
+TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_WRAPPER_ARGS += -DBR_MODE='"$(CC_TARGET_MODE_)"'
+endif
 ifeq ($(BR2_BINFMT_FLAT),y)
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_CFLAGS += -Wl,-elf2flt
 TOOLCHAIN_EXTERNAL_WRAPPER_ARGS += -DBR_BINFMT_FLAT
diff --git a/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-toolchain-wrapper.c b/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-toolchain-wrapper.c
index afca6fab20..460f255ee5 100644
--- a/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-toolchain-wrapper.c
+++ b/toolchain/toolchain-external/ext-toolchain-wrapper.c
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ static char *predef_args[] = {
 #ifdef BR_SOFTFLOAT
 	"-msoft-float",
 #endif /* BR_SOFTFLOAT */
+#ifdef BR_MODE
+	"-m" BR_MODE,
+#endif
 #ifdef BR_64
 	"-m64",
 #endif