Endianness | |||||||||||||
big-endian | |||||||||||||
Storing data in memory | Address | Contents | |||||||||||
32-bit word: 4 bytes. | 1000 | 01 | |||||||||||
Each byte has an individual address. | 1001 | 23 | |||||||||||
Smallest addressable unit | 1002 | 45 | |||||||||||
How many hexadecimal digits in each byte? | 1003 | 67 | |||||||||||
Hex digit = 4 bits, so a byte can hold 2 digits. | 1004 | ||||||||||||
How do we store the value 01234567hex? | 1005 | ||||||||||||
One way: store the digits in order, | 1006 | ||||||||||||
starting with the lowest address. | 1007 | ||||||||||||
This is called big-endian, because the biggest-value | |||||||||||||
byte is stored first. | |||||||||||||