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Re: =?gb2312?B?u9i4tDogT25lIHF1ZXN0aW9u?=
- To: bothner at cygnus dot com
- Subject: Re: =?gb2312?B?u9i4tDogT25lIHF1ZXN0aW9u?=
- From: Peter Barada <pbarada at wavemark dot com>
- Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 10:52:03 -0400
- CC: N8TM at aol dot com, egcs at cygnus dot com
>Let's stick to the standard terminology for this: The Intel x86 architecture
>is little-endian, which means that the low-order bit are considered "first".
>(The low-ordered byte is the one with the smallest byte address.)
>The same is true for the Vax, the Alpha, and other systems.
>
>The Macintosh, Suns, and many other architectures are big-endian, which
>means that the high-rder bit (and byte) are "first".
To clear this up:
Little-endian BYTE order means that the lowest byte addressed contains
the LEAST significant bits of a multibyte value.
Big-endian BYTE order means that the lowest byte addressed contains
the MOST significant bits of a multibyte value.