diff --git a/include/import/atomic-ops.h b/include/import/atomic-ops.h
index 6fe4c78f4..1d9c98ba5 100644
--- a/include/import/atomic-ops.h
+++ b/include/import/atomic-ops.h
@@ -524,10 +524,21 @@
 #else
 /* generic implementations */
 
+#if defined(__aarch64__)
+
+/* This was shown to improve fairness on modern ARMv8 such as Neoverse N1 */
+#define pl_cpu_relax() do {				\
+		asm volatile("isb" ::: "memory");	\
+	} while (0)
+
+#else
+
 #define pl_cpu_relax() do {             \
 		asm volatile("");       \
 	} while (0)
 
+#endif
+
 /* full memory barrier */
 #define pl_mb() do {                    \
 		__sync_synchronize();   \