big-endian
1. <data, architecture> 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. <networking, standard> 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)
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