CPSC 461: Copyright (C) 2003 Katrin Becker Last Modified May 24, 2003 11:51 AM
Big vs Little -Endians:

Big-Endian: places MSB (most significant bit) at the lowest address of the word (byte 0) This is the way we are used to seeing numbers printed. | Little-Endian: places MSB (most significant bit) at the highest address of the word (byte 1 in 16-bit; byte 3 in 32 bit)
1K = 1,024 =
1 | 0 | 2 | 4
byte 0 | byte 1 | byte 2 | byte 3
MSB |  |  | lsb
1K = 1,024 =
4 | 2 | 0 | 1
byte 0 | byte 1 | byte 2 | byte 3
lsb |  |  | MSB
If you have trouble remembering which is which, you are not alone. This may be why: Question: Which "end" (i.e. what byte address) is the low end of the word, and do we expect to find the lsb (the "one's" column) or the msb (the highest magnitude)?

CPSC 461: Copyright (C) 2003 Katrin Becker Last Modified May 24, 2003 11:51 AM