Big Endian and Little Endian

mips computer-architecture endianness mips32
user379888 picture user379888 · Nov 8, 2011 · Viewed 12.5k times · Source

Given is the snap shot of memory of a byte-addressable computer. What would be loaded into register $16 after execution of instruction lw $16, 24($17) if machine is big endian and when Little Endian. Register $17 contains 200.

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Now according to me, four bytes would be copied from the memory (224-227) irrespective of Little Endian or Big Endian,then if the machine is Big Endian then they will be copied to the register as they are.

If the machine is Little Endian then will be reversed and then copied to the register.

Please guide me if I am wrong with the concept.

Answer

m0skit0 picture m0skit0 · Nov 8, 2011

You're right.

More technically, in big-endian mode, the most significant byte is the one with the lowest address, and least significant byte is the one with the highest address. In little-endian mode, the most significant byte is the one with the highest address, while the least significant byte is the one with the lowest address.

So the contents of $16 register would be

If big-endian -> BADADBBD If little-endian -> BDDBDABA

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