Difference between revisions of "Little-endian"
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| − | '''Little-endian''' is a term created by Danny Cohen (technically, he re-purposed it from Jonathan Swift's satire, "Gulliver's Travels", where it refers to the dispute over whether to start eating a boiled egg from the big end or the little end) for the different schemes for ordering | + | '''Little-endian''' is a term created by Danny Cohen (technically, he re-purposed it from Jonathan Swift's satire, "Gulliver's Travels", where it refers to the dispute over whether to start eating a boiled egg from the big end or the little end) for the different schemes for ordering and numbering [[bit]]s and [[byte]]s within larger entities. |
'Little-endian' refers to machines (like the [[Intel x86]]) which number the bits and bytes from the least significant (low-order) end. | 'Little-endian' refers to machines (like the [[Intel x86]]) which number the bits and bytes from the least significant (low-order) end. | ||
| − | Some machines ( | + | Some machines (sometimes dubbed ''mixed-endian'') are not consistent; e.g. the [[PDP-11]], which is mostly little endian - for bits within bytes/[[word]]s, and bytes within words - but not words within long-words. |
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| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | |||
| + | * [[Big-endian]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==External links== | ||
| + | |||
| + | * [https://www.rfc-editor.org/ien/ien137.txt On Holy Wars and a Plea For Peace] - Danny's note which introduced the terminology | ||
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| + | [[Category: Computer Basics]] | ||
Latest revision as of 13:25, 27 February 2024
Little-endian is a term created by Danny Cohen (technically, he re-purposed it from Jonathan Swift's satire, "Gulliver's Travels", where it refers to the dispute over whether to start eating a boiled egg from the big end or the little end) for the different schemes for ordering and numbering bits and bytes within larger entities.
'Little-endian' refers to machines (like the Intel x86) which number the bits and bytes from the least significant (low-order) end.
Some machines (sometimes dubbed mixed-endian) are not consistent; e.g. the PDP-11, which is mostly little endian - for bits within bytes/words, and bytes within words - but not words within long-words.
See also
External links
- On Holy Wars and a Plea For Peace - Danny's note which introduced the terminology
