diff --git a/newlib/ChangeLog b/newlib/ChangeLog
index bb8988804..c8dbd7f52 100644
--- a/newlib/ChangeLog
+++ b/newlib/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2011-08-23  Ralf Corsépius  <ralf.corsepius@rtems.org>
+
+	* libc/sys/rtems/include/limits.h: Compute SSIZE_MAX based on
+	__SIZE_MAX__, __SIZEOF_SIZE_T__ and __CHAR_BIT__.
+
 2011-08-22  Ralf Corsépius <ralf.corsepius@rtems.org>
 
 	* libc/string/index.c: Include <strings.h> for "index".
diff --git a/newlib/libc/sys/rtems/include/limits.h b/newlib/libc/sys/rtems/include/limits.h
index 13e168c0a..43ede04e6 100644
--- a/newlib/libc/sys/rtems/include/limits.h
+++ b/newlib/libc/sys/rtems/include/limits.h
@@ -78,7 +78,13 @@
  *  Invariant values
  */
 
+#ifdef __SIZE_MAX__
+#define SSIZE_MAX		(__SIZE_MAX__ >> 1)
+#elif defined(__SIZEOF_SIZE_T__) && defined(__CHAR_BIT__)
+#define SSIZE_MAX               ((1UL << (__SIZEOF_SIZE_T__ * __CHAR_BIT__ - 1)) - 1)
+#else /* historic fallback, wrong in most cases */
 #define SSIZE_MAX               32767
+#endif
 
 /*
  *  Maximum Values