Definition of "big-endian" []

• Of a computer, storing the most significant byte of a multibyte number at a lower address than the least significant byte; that is, "big end" first. (adjective)
• Of a computer, transmitting most significant byte of a multibyte number before transmitting the least significant byte; that is, "big end" first. (adjective)

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• "There have been plenty of other apparently minor mistakes in computing that continue to create real headaches: for example, the different line end characters used on Windows, Unix, and Apple; or the big-endian/little-endian distinction in hardware integer representation."
• "As I said earlier, the oiv data files are in big-endian format and therefore need to be accessed differently than the others."
• "Developers only have problems when they use processor-specific features like SSE/Altivec/NEON, or when they share data between processors of different endianness - which doesn't apply to ARM/PowerPC, since they are both big-endian."