big-endian

big-endian
 adj.

   [common; From Swift's Gulliver's Travels via the famous paper On Holy
   Wars and a Plea for Peace by Danny Cohen, USC/ISI IEN 137, dated April
   1, 1980]

   1. Describes a computer architecture in which, within a given
   multi-byte numeric representation, the most significant byte has the
   lowest address (the word is stored `big-end-first'). Most processors,
   including the IBM 370 family, the {PDP-10}, the Motorola
   microprocessor families, and most of the various RISC designs are
   big-endian. Big-endian byte order is also sometimes called network
   order. See {little-endian}, {middle-endian}, {NUXI problem}, {swab}.

   2. An Internet address the wrong way round. Most of the world follows
   the Internet standard and writes email addresses starting with the
   name of the computer and ending up with the name of the country. In
   the U.K.: the Joint Academic Networking Team had decided to do it the
   other way round before the Internet domain standard was established.
   Most gateway sites have {ad-hockery} in their mailers to handle this,
   but can still be confused. In particular, the address
   [email protected] could be interpreted in JANET's big-endian way as
   one in the U.K. (domain uk) or in the standard little-endian way as
   one in the domain as (American Samoa) on the opposite side of the
   world.
    

big-endian

   1. <data, architecture> A computer {architecture} in which,
   within a given multi-{byte} numeric representation, the most
   significant byte has the lowest address (the word is stored
   "big-end-first").

   Most processors, including the {IBM 370} family, the {PDP-10},
   the {Motorola} {microprocessor} families, and most of the
   various {RISC} designs current in mid-1993, are big-endian.

   See {-endian}.

   2. <networking, standard> A backward {electronic mail
   address}.  The world now follows the {Internet} {hostname}
   {standard} (see {FQDN}) and writes e-mail addresses starting
   with the name of the computer and ending up with the {country
   code} (e.g. [email protected]).  In the United Kingdom the
   {Joint Networking Team} decided to do it the other way round
   (e.g. [email protected]) before the {Internet} {domain}
   standard was established.  Most {gateway sites} required
   {ad-hockery} in their {mailers} to handle this.

   By July 1994 this parochial idiosyncracy was on the way out
   and mailers started to reject big-endian addresses.  By about
   1996, people would look at you strangely if you suggested such
   a bizarre thing might ever have existed.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1998-08-09)