[1] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

big-endian adj. common; from swift's "gulliver's travels" via the
   famous paper "on holy wars and a plea for peace" by danny cohen, usc/isi
   ien 137, dated april 1, 1980 1. describes 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 are big-endian. big-endian byte order is also sometimes
   called `network order'. see little-endian, middle-endian, nuxi
   problem, swab. 2. an internet address the wrong way round. most
   of the world follows the internet standard and writes email addresses
   starting with the name of the computer and ending up with the name of
   the country. in the u.k. the joint networking team had decided to do it
   the other way round before the internet domain standard was established.
   most gateway sites have ad-hockery in their mailers to handle this,
   but can still be confused. in particular, the address
   me@uk.ac.bris.pys.as could be interpreted in janet's big-endian way as
   one in the u.k. domain uk or in the standard little-endian way as one
   in the domain as american samoa on the opposite side of the world.


see also:
pdp-10 little-endian middle-endian nuxi problem swab internet address 
ad-hockery 

[2] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

big-endian
     
        1.  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.  a backward electronic mail
        address.  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 country
        code e.g. fred@doc.acme.ac.uk.  in the united kingdom the
        joint networking team decided to do it the other way round
        e.g. me@uk.ac.wigan.cs 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
     
     
see also:
architecture byte ibm 370 pdp-10 motorola microprocessor 
risc -endian electronic mail address internet hostname 
standard fqdn country code joint networking team domain 
gateway sites ad-hockery mailers jargon file 

Big-Endian >> B Words
Big-Endian, definition of term: Big-Endian
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