Big vs Little Endian

The cluster discusses the debate between big-endian and little-endian byte orders, their relevance in modern hardware like x86 and ARM, network protocols, and software handling.

📉 Falling 0.3x Hardware
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#2205
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Keywords

e.g CPU VAX ARM RIFF IEE KV WAVE problem.html bytesexual.html endian byte little big order pdp mixed bits machines serialization

Sample Comments

tssva • May 8, 2021 • View on HN

Network byte order is big endian so it is far from being pretty much irrelevant these days.

reactordev • Nov 10, 2025 • View on HN

Does anyone big endian anymore?

frign • Jan 15, 2016 • View on HN

Keep in mind not all machines are Little Endian. This assumption is wrong.

toong • Jan 17, 2014 • View on HN

Hint: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

bcoates • May 2, 2013 • View on HN

Please tell me it's adjustable between little- and big- endian.

smallstepforman • Aug 22, 2018 • View on HN

Big endian vs little endian hardware?

kens • Aug 13, 2023 • View on HN

You're not going to lure me into a big-endian vs little-endian argument :-)

grav • Apr 22, 2017 • View on HN

In which case do you need to test big endian? Compiler or low-level library development?

pseudolus • Dec 24, 2022 • View on HN

Sometimes it's best to go with the classics: big-endian versus little-endian.

rocqua • Aug 11, 2024 • View on HN

Is there a good reason not to use big endian?