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Article #11150Re: big + little endian (was: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS ..)
From: Wayne Schlitt
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 15:39
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 15:39
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In article <1hquujINNmov@fido.asd.sgi.com> pj@sam.wpd.sgi.com (Paul Jackson) writes: > |> 01101001 may mean `105' (big-endian) or `150' (little-endian) > > Big and little endian refer to the order of bytes within words, > not to the order of bits within bytes. > Big and little endian refer to the order of sub-units within units, not just bytes and words. You can order bits within bytes either way, bytes within words, and words within double words. Various computers systems have made different choices at all of those levels. The ordering of bits within bytes has pretty much standardized on the little-endian format. Similar confusion occurs when you try to decide whether to put the low address of a memory dump at the top or the bottom of the page and if you should address the screen from the top left or the bottom left corner. (If computer development wasn't so eurocentric, then we would probably have debates on left vs right too.) -wayne
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Newsgroups: comp.arch Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!dsndata!backbone!backbone!wayne From: wayne@backbone.uucp (Wayne Schlitt) Subject: Re: big + little endian (was: Comparison of Alpha, MIPS ..) In-Reply-To: pj@sam.wpd.sgi.com's message of 30 Dec 1992 01: 44:51 GMT Message-ID: <WAYNE.92Dec30093950@backbone.uucp> Sender: wayne@backbone (Wayne Schlitt) Organization: The Backbone Cabal References: <1992Dec29.044012.1@cc.curtin.edu.au> <3623363@zl2tnm.gen.nz> <28164@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <1hquujINNmov@fido.asd.sgi.com> Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 15:39:50 GMT