Groups > comp.arch > #2043

Re: History of byte addressing

Newsgroups	comp.arch
Subject	Re: History of byte addressing
References	<is8ons$jiv$1@gal.iecc.com> <248b8b45-50f6-4cd6-b98a-2b57629b3390@c26g2000vbq.googlegroups.com> <18608bba-ef46-4abb-9eed-d94089feb2ce@d28g2000yqf.googlegroups.com> <42477501-047c-4e2e-9697-a6275ad39af3@s14g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>
From	Morten Reistad <first@last.name>
Date	2011-06-05 21:42 +0200
Message-ID	<4debe460$3@news.broadpark.no> (permalink)

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In article <42477501-047c-4e2e-9697-a6275ad39af3@s14g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>,
Paul A. Clayton <paaronclayton@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Jun 5, 1:36 pm, Quadibloc <jsav...@ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
>[snip]
>> Because being big-endian was the *obvious* right way to design a
>> computer - write the numbers in the computer's memory the same way you
>> see them on a piece of paper! So that people can program in assembly
>> language without going insane.
>
>While on the subject of endian choice, when and why was endian
>nature of bits consistently made little-endian?

Wintel clinched it around 1992, when the killer micros took over
everywhere.

The 1980 had a bi-endian prologue. The mainframes were big endian, 
and so was Prime, Sun and initially MIPS. But the little endianness
kept creeping in; to MIPS (or SPIM), PDP11s and VAXen, and others. 

>It seems to me that one would desire the endian nature of
>'bytes' to be the same as that of bits, but bits are (at least
>now) consistently little-endian while the byte-endian is
>more diverse.
>
>(I generally favor big-endian representation because the high
>order bits are 'more significant'; but little-endian representation
>certainly better fits variable-length addition and could provide
>more frequent early out of equal comparison when the low order bits
>are more variable--which I suspect is a common case.  It also seems
>that string libraries could have benefited from endian awareness
>for sorting--at least before unicode.)

We probably have ended up little endian for good. One little, but
quite insignifican battle lost among a lot of gain.

-- mrr

Thread

History of byte addressing John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-06-02 19:36 +0000
  Re: History of byte addressing nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-06-02 20:38 +0100
    Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-03 08:05 -0700
  Re: History of byte addressing Alex McDonald <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2011-06-03 05:26 -0700
    Re: History of byte addressing Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-06-03 09:48 -0400
  Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-03 07:49 -0700
    Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-03 10:56 -0700
  Re: History of byte addressing "Andy \"Krazy\" Glew" <andy@SPAM.comp-arch.net> - 2011-06-04 10:59 -0700
    Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-04 15:01 -0700
      Re: History of byte addressing nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-06-04 22:53 +0100
        Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-05 10:40 -0700
    Re: History of byte addressing John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-06-05 06:10 +0000
      Re: History of byte addressing Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-06-05 10:00 -0700
        Re: History of byte addressing Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-06-05 10:04 -0700
          Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-05 10:36 -0700
            Re: History of byte addressing "Paul A. Clayton" <paaronclayton@gmail.com> - 2011-06-05 11:00 -0700
              Re: History of byte addressing Morten Reistad <first@last.name> - 2011-06-05 21:42 +0200
                Re: History of byte addressing anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2011-06-06 17:03 +0000
                Re: History of byte addressing Andrew Reilly <areilly---@bigpond.net.au> - 2011-06-06 23:55 +0000
                Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-06 18:26 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing Andrew Reilly <areilly---@bigpond.net.au> - 2011-06-07 05:08 +0000
                Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-07 03:26 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> - 2011-07-05 20:00 -0400
                Re: History of byte addressing jsavard@excxn.aNOSPAMb.cdn.invalid (John Savard) - 2011-07-06 00:15 +0000
              Re: History of byte addressing George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2011-06-05 16:18 -0400
              Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-05 22:10 -0700
              Re: History of byte addressing torbenm@diku.dk (Torben Ægidius Mogensen) - 2011-06-07 10:50 +0200
                Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 16:02 +0200
              Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 15:51 +0200
            Re: History of byte addressing Louis Krupp <lkrupp@nospam.indra.com.invalid> - 2011-06-05 13:43 -0600
              Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-05 22:12 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-06-06 02:04 -0400
                Re: History of byte addressing Stephen Fuld <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> - 2011-06-05 23:49 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-06-06 13:34 -0400
                Re: History of byte addressing Stephen Fuld <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> - 2011-06-06 10:49 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing "Andy \"Krazy\" Glew" <andy@SPAM.comp-arch.net> - 2011-06-06 22:42 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-06-07 07:37 -0400
                Re: History of byte addressing Stephen Fuld <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> - 2011-06-07 08:22 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing "Andy \"Krazy\" Glew" <andy@SPAM.comp-arch.net> - 2011-06-11 09:56 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing EricP <ThatWouldBeTelling@thevillage.com> - 2011-06-11 14:59 -0400
                Re: History of byte addressing Louis Krupp <lkrupp@nospam.indra.com.invalid> - 2011-06-11 18:52 -0600
                Re: History of byte addressing "Andy \"Krazy\" Glew" <andy@SPAM.comp-arch.net> - 2011-06-12 12:40 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-06-11 15:05 -0400
                Re: History of byte addressing Louis Krupp <lkrupp@nospam.indra.com.invalid> - 2011-06-06 13:10 -0600
                Re: History of byte addressing George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2011-06-06 16:41 -0400
                Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-06 18:13 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing Louis Krupp <lkrupp@nospam.indra.com.invalid> - 2011-06-06 23:50 -0600
                Re: History of byte addressing Jim Haynes <jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu> - 2011-06-07 10:01 -0500
                Re: History of byte addressing Louis Krupp <lkrupp@nospam.indra.com.invalid> - 2011-06-07 13:09 -0600
                Re: History of byte addressing Louis Krupp <lkrupp@nospam.indra.com.invalid> - 2011-06-07 14:03 -0600
                Re: History of byte addressing Louis Krupp <lkrupp@nospam.indra.com.invalid> - 2011-06-06 05:16 -0600
        Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-05 10:44 -0700
        Re: History of byte addressing John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-06-06 05:00 +0000
          Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-05 22:11 -0700
            Re: History of byte addressing nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-06-06 08:00 +0100
              Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-06 18:16 -0700
            Re: History of byte addressing Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2011-06-06 01:01 -0700
              Re: History of byte addressing nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-06-06 08:30 +0100
                Re: History of byte addressing Terje Mathisen <"terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"> - 2011-06-06 10:34 +0200
                Re: History of byte addressing Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2011-06-06 03:29 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing Terje Mathisen <"terje.mathisen at tmsw.no"> - 2011-06-06 15:21 +0200
                Re: History of byte addressing Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2011-06-06 03:23 -0700
                Re: History of byte addressing MitchAlsup <MitchAlsup@aol.com> - 2011-06-07 08:01 -0700
                Re: alignment, was History of byte addressing John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-06-06 18:33 +0000
                Re: alignment, was History of byte addressing nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-06-06 19:30 +0100
                Re: alignment, was History of byte addressing Anne & Lynn Wheeler <lynn@garlic.com> - 2011-06-06 15:32 -0400
              Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-06 18:11 -0700
          Re: History of byte addressing Robert Myers <rbmyersusa@gmail.com> - 2011-06-06 06:48 -0700
            Re: History of byte addressing jsavard@excxn.aNOSPAMb.cdn.invalid (John Savard) - 2011-07-03 16:13 +0000
        Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-03 09:10 -0700
  Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 16:23 +0200
    Re: History of byte addressing Stephen Fuld <SFuld@alumni.cmu.edu.invalid> - 2011-06-07 08:26 -0700
  Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 16:25 +0200
    Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 16:45 +0200
      Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 16:48 +0200
      Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 16:59 +0200
        Re: History of byte addressing "Skybuck Flying" <Windows7IsOK@DreamPC2006.com> - 2011-06-07 17:05 +0200
  Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-06-18 15:43 -0700
  Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-04 03:14 -0700
    Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-04 03:40 -0700
      Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-04 04:28 -0700
        Re: History of byte addressing nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-07-04 13:38 +0100
          Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-04 06:47 -0700
            Re: History of byte addressing nmm1@cam.ac.uk - 2011-07-04 14:16 +0100
        Re: History of byte addressing Bill Findlay <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2011-07-04 15:53 +0100
      Re: History of byte addressing Bill Findlay <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2011-07-04 15:36 +0100
        Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-04 07:50 -0700
          Re: History of byte addressing John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> - 2011-07-04 19:46 +0000
            Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-04 15:29 -0700
              Re: History of byte addressing Bill Findlay <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2011-07-05 00:02 +0100
      Re: History of byte addressing Bill Findlay <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2011-07-04 15:47 +0100
        Re: History of byte addressing Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2011-07-04 07:54 -0700

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