endianess - Computer Definition
Referring to the orientation of a computer system, application, or network design with respect to the placement of the most significant bit, digit, or byte in a coding scheme. Big-endian places the most significant bit, digit, or byte in the first, or leftmost, position. Little-endian places the most significant bit, digit, or byte in the last, or rightmost, position. Bi-endian systems can work either way. Motorola processors employ the big-endian approach, whereas Intel processors take the little-endian approach.Telephone numbers, for example, are big-endian, beginning with a country code, followed by an area code, a central office prefix, and a line number. Table E-5 illustrates how the decimal value 47,572 would be expressed in hexadecimal and binary notation (two octets) and how it would be stored using these two methods. Table E-5: Endianess
| Number | Big-Endian | Little-Endian |
|---|---|---|
| Hexadecimal | ||
| B9D4 | B9D4 | 4D9B |
| Binary | ||
| 10111001 | 10111001 | 11010100 |
| 11010100 | 10111001 | |
| 11010100 |
