Lee Jones <PICLIST@mitvma.mit.edu> wrote:

> > Yes, humans are big endian
>
> But even humans do math in little endian fashion.  Take the case
> of addition of a multi-digit number.

    On the other hand, division is performed big-end first, as is
    comparison.  If it were easy to show that one way is clearly
    better than the other, I'm sure we'd all have standardized on
    that way long ago.

    For an experience that will make you want to kill yourself, build
    something with a PowerPC.  It has switchable endianness (more or
    less), but no matter which way you tell it to number its bytes,
    it numbers its BITS in big-endian fashion: The most-significant
    bit of a 4-byte quantity is always called bit 0, while the
    least-significant bit is always called bit 31.  This crazyness
    extends to the numbering of the pins on its databus, as well.

    -Andy

=== Andrew Warren -- aiw@cypress.com
=== Principal Design Engineer
=== Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
===
=== Opinions expressed above do not
=== necessarily represent those of
=== Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

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