diff --git a/tests/configs/t1000-simple-atomic.py b/tests/configs/t1000-simple-atomic.py
index 96357f40c..209cb2813 100644
--- a/tests/configs/t1000-simple-atomic.py
+++ b/tests/configs/t1000-simple-atomic.py
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@ from m5.objects import *
 m5.util.addToPath('../configs/common')
 import FSConfig
 
-system = FSConfig.makeSparcSystem('atomic')
+try:
+    system = FSConfig.makeSparcSystem('atomic')
+except IOError as e:
+    skip_test(reason=str(e))
+
 system.voltage_domain = VoltageDomain()
 system.clk_domain = SrcClockDomain(clock = '1GHz',
                                    voltage_domain = system.voltage_domain)