04-08-2012, 12:29 PM
Big Endian / Little Endian
Big Endian _ Little Endian.pdf (Size: 48.06 KB / Downloads: 29)
When transferring binary data between computers, it is important that both systems use the same data
representations, or the information will be meaningless. While it might appear to many that nothing could be
simpler than binary integer numbers, there are at least two different formats for storing twos complement
integers. The difference depends upon the order in which the bytes of an integer are stored in memory. The
Big Endian format stores the most significant bytes (the bytes containing the high order or left most bits) in
the lowest address with the following bytes in sequentially higher addresses. The bytes would appear in
normal order when written from left to right. The Little Endian format stores the least significant byte (the
byte containing the lowest or right most bits) at the lowest address with the increasingly significant bytes
stored at increasing addresses.