ISRO2007-53

Question

In the Big-Endian system, the computer stores

• A. MSB of data in the lowest memory address of data unit
• B. LSB of data in the lowest memory address of data unit
• C. MSB of data in the highest memory address of data unit
• D. LSB of data in the highest memory address of data unit

Comments

Big-endian is human friendly. The digits are stored as we(humans) see them.

So, MSB placed at the lowest memory location.

$\begin{matrix} MSB &- &- &- & - &- &- &LSB \\ 0 &1 &2 &3 &4 &5 &6 &7 \end{matrix}$

 

Little-endian is arithmetic-friendly, and it stores the MSB towards the highest memory location.

If the number is 0x12345678, it is saved as: 78   56  34  12

See the MSB (the digit 1)location here.

Answer 1

Big-endian is an order in which the “big end” i.e. the most significant value in the sequence is stored first at the lowest storage address.