arch/arc/Documentation/arc-linux-linking-and-system-map.txt

SDRAM/DDR Placement in System Memory Map when running ARC Linux
===============================================================

For ARC700, the 32 bit address space (4G) is split as 2G:2G
-The lower 2G (0 to 0x7FFF_FFFF) is translated by MMU and thus suitable for
    implementing user address space.
-The upper 2G (0x8000_0000 to 0xFFFF_FFFF) is not translated and is implicitly
    available in each task's address space - thus suitable for kernel code/data
    which is why ARC Linux by default is linked at 0x8000_0000;
    all kernel logical addresses (in objdump/readelf) are 0x8zs based.
    This is driven by CONFIG_LINUX_LINK_BASE, which trickles all the way
    down to linker-map file "arch/arc/vmlinux.lds.S"

From a board designer's perspective this implies wiring the SDRAM/DDR
at high-address 0x8000_0000. However certain boards could have RAM at a
different address, because some other peripheral is wired there.
To ensure that this doesn't conflict with Linux layout, CONFIG_LINUX_LINK_BASE
needs to be adjusted.

While CONFIG_LINUX_LINK_BASE indicated start of external RAM wiring,
CONFIG_SDRAM_SIZE captures the RAM size (used primarlily by page accounting
sub-system of kernel)

Note that irrespective of where the kernel code/data is laid-out there's a
"universal kernel constant" PAGE_OFFSET which remains 0x8000_0000, describing
the above-mentioned ARC700 hardware divide of 2G:2G.