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Re: Endian[n]ess, language-specific problems and help with egcs.
- To: Smith <smith at vaj5184 dot tu dot hac dot com>
- Subject: Re: Endian[n]ess, language-specific problems and help with egcs.
- From: Gary Thomas <gdt at linuxppc dot org>
- Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 12:56:38 +0200 (MEST)
- Cc: egcs at cygnus dot com
- Organization: Linux/PPC
On 17-Aug-98 Smith wrote:
>
> I was wondering if there is a list of what endian[n]ess
> a CPU/OS uses. I also realize that it's more complicated
> in that some CPU's like PPC support LE in addition to BE,
> so does that mean that PPC's are BE under MacOS/Linux/BeOS,
> and LE under NT?
>
The PowerPC can support either endianess [more-or-less]
equally well. That said, the PowerPC world is rather schizophrenic.
Linux/PPC, MacOS, and BeOS are indeed running in BE mode.
Windows-NT and Solaris run LE for compatability with their
other installed base. Note that at least Windows-NT is *dead*
on the PowerPC.
One of the problems we have with the PowerPC is that even though
the CPU is quite happy running Big Endian, most of the peripheral
support *is not*. The PCI bus, in particular, is a Little
Endian world :-(
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Thomas |
email: gdt@linuxppc.org | "Fine wine is a necessity of
... opinions expressed here are mine | life for me"
and no one else would claim them! |
| Thomas Jefferson
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