In a big-endian system, the most significant value in the
sequence is stored at the lowest storage address (i.e., first).
In a little-endian system, the least significant value in the
sequence is stored first. For example, consider the number 1025
(2 to the tenth power plus one) stored in a 4-byte integer:
00000000 00000000 00000100 00000001 |Address||Big-Endian
representation of 1025||Little-Endian representation of 1025|
Many mainframe computers, particularly IBM mainframes, use a
big-endian architecture. Most modern computers, including PCs,
use the little-endian system. The PowerPC system is bi-endian
because it can understand both systems. Converting data between
the two systems is sometimes referred to as the NUXI problem.
Imagine the word UNIX stored in two 2-byte words. In a Big-
Endian systems, it would be stored as UNIX. In a little-endian
system, it would be stored as NUXI. Note that the example above
shows only big- and little-endian byte orders. The bit ordering
within each byte can also be big- o