diff --git a/modules/arch/mips.nix b/modules/arch/mips.nix
index 7ef1a3ac..956abf4b 100644
--- a/modules/arch/mips.nix
+++ b/modules/arch/mips.nix
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
       OF = "y";
       USE_OF = "y";
     };
+    hardware.ram.startAddress = 0;
     boot.commandLine = [
       "console=ttyS0,115200" # true of all mips we've yet encountered
     ];
diff --git a/modules/hardware.nix b/modules/hardware.nix
index 7ad33bcc..aa20d65b 100644
--- a/modules/hardware.nix
+++ b/modules/hardware.nix
@@ -29,6 +29,12 @@ in {
         description = "\"Default\" output: what gets built for this device when outputs.default is requested. Typically this is \"flashimage\" or \"vmroot\"";
         type = types.nonEmptyStr;
       };
+      ram = {
+        startAddress = mkOption {
+          type = types.int;
+        };
+      };
+
       flash = {
         # start address and size of whichever partition (often
         # called "firmware") we're going to overwrite with our