Big endian - Revision history

80.224.220.139 at 20:49, 9 March 2005

2005-03-09T20:49:14Z

80.224.220.139 at 20:47, 9 March 2005

2005-03-09T20:47:17Z

80.224.220.139 at 20:42, 9 March 2005

2005-03-09T20:42:55Z

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== Introduction to [[endian]]ness ==

Having read the [[endian]]ness article, you might already have an idea of what this is for.

The [[endian]]ess defines the bytes' order in physical memory.

== Definition ==

When you must store a two-bytes (or larger) value in memory, you can either store the first byte(s) in the first place or the second byte(s) in the first place.

Big [[endian]] defines that the first bytes will go first.

== Example ==

An example of a two-bytes number is 65534. This number requires two bytes to be stored in memory. The decimal number 65534 is represented, in hexadecimal, as FFFE (or 0xFFFE). Here we can see the two byes: FF and FE.

We can decide wether we want to palce the FF byte first in memory or the FE byte first.

Big endian tells us to place first the which whose numbers have more weight in the total number. That is FF, since FF here represents 65280, while FE represents 254.

So, physically in memory we would have:

_________________________
Memory Graph: |_____FF_____|_____FE_____|
Memory Possitions: 000001 000002

== Uses ==

This [[endian]]ness is used (amongst others) in [http://www.sun.com/processors SPARC], [http://www.chips.ibm.com/products/powerpc PowerPC] and [http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ibm-system-360.html System/360] machines.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:47, 9 March 2005
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	This [[endian]]ness is used (amongst others) in [http://www.sun.com/processors SPARC], [http://www.chips.ibm.com/products/powerpc PowerPC] and [http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ibm-system-360.html System/360] machines.		This [[endian]]ness is used (amongst others) in [http://www.sun.com/processors SPARC], [http://www.chips.ibm.com/products/powerpc PowerPC] and [http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ibm-system-360.html System/360] machines.
		+
		+	== Notes ==
		+
		+	To understand better the big [[endian]] concept it is helpful to compare it to the [[little endian]] concept.

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 We can decide wether we want to palce the FF byte first in memory or the FE byte first.
-Big endian tells us to place first the which whose numbers have more weight in the total number. That is FF, since FF here represents 65280, while FE represents 254.
+Big [[endian]] tells us to place first the which whose numbers have more weight in the total number. That is FF, since FF here represents 65280, while FE represents 254.
 So, physically in memory we would have: