from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Interchange File Format
<file format> (IFF, full name "EA IFF 1985") A generic file
format published by {Electronic Arts} as an open standard.
IFF is {chunk}-based and hierarchical so files can include
other files. It is easily extensible and an all round Good
Idea.
An IFF file starts with one of the following "group IDs":
'FORM', 'LIST' or 'CAT '. This is followed by an unsigned
32-bit number of bytes in the remainder of the file. Then
comes an ID that indicates which type of IFF file this is.
The main image type is {ILBM}, {audio} is either {AIFF} or
{8SVX}, animations are {ANIM} etc. An IFF file will probably
have a {filename extension} related to this file type stored
in the file. The rest of the file is divided into {chunks}
each of which also has a four-byte header and byte count.
{Microsoft} {WAV} and {AVI} are all based around an almost
identical scheme to IFF called {RIFF}. The main difference is
that, in RIFF files, numbers are little-endian as on {Intel}
processors, whereas in IFF files they are big-endian, as on
the {Motorola 68000} processors in the {Amiga} where IFF files
were first used.
(1997-07-23)