diff --git a/newlib/libc/machine/arc/strchr.S b/newlib/libc/machine/arc/strchr.S
index 1bf6db97d..eed6278f7 100644
--- a/newlib/libc/machine/arc/strchr.S
+++ b/newlib/libc/machine/arc/strchr.S
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@
 /* This implementation is optimized for performance.  For code size a generic
    implementation of this function from newlib/libc/string/strchr.c will be
    used.  */
-#if !defined (__OPTIMIZE_SIZE__) && !defined (PREFER_SIZE_OVER_SPEED)
+#if !defined (__OPTIMIZE_SIZE__) && !defined (PREFER_SIZE_OVER_SPEED) \
+    && !defined (__ARC_RF16__)
 
 #include "asm.h"