B

Big Endian

Definition: A byte ordering method where the most significant byte (MSB) is stored first (at the lowest memory address) and the least significant byte (LSB) is stored last.

Example: In a 32-bit system, the hexadecimal number 0x12345678 would be stored in memory as:

Address	Value
0x1000	0x12
0x1001	0x34
0x1002	0x56
0x1003	0x78

Related Terms: Little Endian, Byte Order

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Byte Order

Definition: The sequence in which bytes are arranged when storing multi-byte data types (such as integers or floating-point numbers) in memory. The two primary byte order conventions are big-endian and little-endian.

Example: Consider a 16-bit value 0xABCD.

• In big-endian format, it is stored as:

  Address  | Value
  ---------|------
  0x1000   | 0xAB
  0x1001   | 0xCD

• In little-endian format, it is stored as:

  Address  | Value
  ---------|------
  0x1000   | 0xCD
  0x1001   | 0xAB

Related Terms: Little Endian, Big Endian,