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 mailaddress. 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 countrycode (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)