Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Planning a Workgroup
Possible Problems Exchanging Data Between HP-UX and PCs
Chapter 2134
NOTE Newer PA-RISC computers can be either big endian or little endian
machines, however the HP-UX operating system is a big endian
operating system.
Figure 2-6 A 32-bit example of “Big Endian” architecture
Little Endian
Architectures
Architectures that number the bytes of a word from right to left (byte 0
represents the right-most eight bits of the word) are called “little endian”
architectures. The Intel x86 and Pentium based computers are examples
of little endian machines.
Figure 2-7 A 32-bit example of “Little Endian” architecture
Bit 31 Bit 0
Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3
"Big Endian" Architecture
Bit 31 Bit 0
Byte 0Byte 1Byte 2Byte 3
"Little Endian" Architecture