diff --git a/hw/virtio/vhost.c b/hw/virtio/vhost.c
index 440071815408a6392d64c53e952b4331f4a0c180..81cc5b0ae35c589cba3d655cfa074befe94d204f 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/vhost.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/vhost.c
@@ -767,15 +767,11 @@ static inline bool vhost_needs_vring_endian(VirtIODevice *vdev)
     if (virtio_vdev_has_feature(vdev, VIRTIO_F_VERSION_1)) {
         return false;
     }
-#ifdef TARGET_IS_BIENDIAN
 #ifdef HOST_WORDS_BIGENDIAN
     return vdev->device_endian == VIRTIO_DEVICE_ENDIAN_LITTLE;
 #else
     return vdev->device_endian == VIRTIO_DEVICE_ENDIAN_BIG;
 #endif
-#else
-    return false;
-#endif
 }
 
 static int vhost_virtqueue_set_vring_endian_legacy(struct vhost_dev *dev,
diff --git a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-access.h b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-access.h
index 8dc84f5203164a20139bf5d9fc033698c4f82c1f..4b280381464209bee34fbfa846956b1708a4b07a 100644
--- a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-access.h
+++ b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-access.h
@@ -17,9 +17,13 @@
 #include "hw/virtio/virtio.h"
 #include "exec/address-spaces.h"
 
+#if defined(TARGET_PPC64) || defined(TARGET_ARM)
+#define LEGACY_VIRTIO_IS_BIENDIAN 1
+#endif
+
 static inline bool virtio_access_is_big_endian(VirtIODevice *vdev)
 {
-#if defined(TARGET_IS_BIENDIAN)
+#if defined(LEGACY_VIRTIO_IS_BIENDIAN)
     return virtio_is_big_endian(vdev);
 #elif defined(TARGET_WORDS_BIGENDIAN)
     if (virtio_vdev_has_feature(vdev, VIRTIO_F_VERSION_1)) {
diff --git a/target-arm/cpu.h b/target-arm/cpu.h
index 401955f825e04b816354e81233240c096da8e48d..17d80510da6063b2c89710df120a763fb087c467 100644
--- a/target-arm/cpu.h
+++ b/target-arm/cpu.h
@@ -29,8 +29,6 @@
 #  define TARGET_LONG_BITS 32
 #endif
 
-#define TARGET_IS_BIENDIAN 1
-
 #define CPUArchState struct CPUARMState
 
 #include "qemu-common.h"
diff --git a/target-ppc/cpu.h b/target-ppc/cpu.h
index 98a24a50f3b519ee57877a61e3964cbfb59990ac..db7ee0c74d8559fa466b0fb0a474168e397c99a9 100644
--- a/target-ppc/cpu.h
+++ b/target-ppc/cpu.h
@@ -28,8 +28,6 @@
 #define TARGET_LONG_BITS 64
 #define TARGET_PAGE_BITS 12
 
-#define TARGET_IS_BIENDIAN 1
-
 /* Note that the official physical address space bits is 62-M where M
    is implementation dependent.  I've not looked up M for the set of
    cpus we emulate at the system level.  */