big-endian

Computing Dictionary

big-endian definition


1. A computer architecture in which, within a given multi-byte numeric representation, the most significant byte has the lowest address (the word is stored "big-end-first").
Most processors, including the IBM 370 family, the PDP-10, the Motorola microprocessor families, and most of the various RISC designs current in mid-1993, are big-endian.
See -endian.
2. A backward electronic mail address. The world now follows the Internet hostname standard (see FQDN) and writes e-mail addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up with the country code (e.g. fred@doc.acme.ac.uk). In the United Kingdom the Joint Networking Team decided to do it the other way round (e.g. me@uk.ac.wigan.cs) before the Internet domain standard was established. Most gateway sites required ad-hockery in their mailers to handle this.
By July 1994 this parochial idiosyncracy was on the way out and mailers started to reject big-endian addresses. By about 1996, people would look at you strangely if you suggested such a bizarre thing might ever have existed.
[Jargon File]
(1998-08-09)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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Big-endian is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
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