-
Endianness defines how multi-byte values are laid out in memory—specifically, the order in which bytes are stored.
-
Endianness decides which byte goes at the lowest memory address.
-
Endianness does NOT change:
-
Bit order inside a byte
-
The numeric value
-
Register behavior
-
-
It only affects:
-
Memory representation
-
Serialization / binary I/O
-
Little-endian
-
Least significant byte stored first (lowest address)
-
Most systems today are little-endian.
value: 0x12345678
Address: +0 +1 +2 +3
Memory: 78 56 34 12 (little-endian)
-
Used by:
-
x86 / x86-64
-
ARM (default today)
-
most modern systems
-
Big-endian
-
Most significant byte first
Value: 0x12345678
Address: +0 +1 +2 +3
Memory: 12 34 56 78
-
Used by:
-
some networking protocols
-
older architectures (e.g., PowerPC in certain modes)
-