diff --git a/sys/libkern/crc32.c b/sys/libkern/crc32.c
index a6a162b718bf..4c937d29a568 100644
--- a/sys/libkern/crc32.c
+++ b/sys/libkern/crc32.c
@@ -94,18 +94,21 @@ uint32_t crc32_tab[] = {
 	0xb40bbe37, 0xc30c8ea1, 0x5a05df1b, 0x2d02ef8d
 };
 
-uint32_t
-crc32(const void *buf, size_t size)
-{
-	const uint8_t *p;
-	uint32_t crc;
-
-	p = buf;
-	crc = ~0U;
-
-	while (size--)
-		crc = crc32_tab[(crc ^ *p++) & 0xFF] ^ (crc >> 8);
-
-	return crc ^ ~0U;
-}
-
+/*
+ * A function that calculates the CRC-32 based on the table above is
+ * given below for documentation purposes. An equivalent implementation
+ * of this function that's actually used in the kernel can be found
+ * in sys/systm.h, where it can be inlined.
+ *
+ *	uint32_t
+ *	crc32(const void *buf, size_t size)
+ *	{
+ *		const uint8_t *p = buf;
+ *		uint32_t crc;
+ *
+ *		crc = ~0U;
+ *		while (size--)
+ *			crc = crc32_tab[(crc ^ *p++) & 0xFF] ^ (crc >> 8);
+ *		return crc ^ ~0U;
+ *	}
+ */
diff --git a/sys/sys/systm.h b/sys/sys/systm.h
index 0c114b3f7362..64545f7ec766 100644
--- a/sys/sys/systm.h
+++ b/sys/sys/systm.h
@@ -143,8 +143,28 @@ void	panic(const char *, ...) __dead2 __printflike(1, 2);
 
 void	cpu_boot(int);
 void	cpu_rootconf(void);
+
 extern uint32_t crc32_tab[];
-uint32_t crc32(const void *buf, size_t size);
+
+static __inline uint32_t
+crc32_raw(const void *buf, size_t size, uint32_t crc)
+{
+	const uint8_t *p = buf;
+
+	while (size--)
+		crc = crc32_tab[(crc ^ *p++) & 0xFF] ^ (crc >> 8);
+	return (crc);
+}
+
+static __inline uint32_t
+crc32(const void *buf, size_t size)
+{
+	uint32_t crc;
+
+	crc = crc32_raw(buf, size, ~0U);
+	return (crc ^ ~0U);
+}
+
 void	critical_enter(void);
 void	critical_exit(void);
 void	init_param1(void);