Endianness
the order of the bytes, comprising a digital word, in computer memory, based on significance
In computing, endianness is the order in which bytes within a word data type are transmitted over a data communication medium or addressed in computer memory, counting only byte significance. Endianness is primarily expressed as big-endian (BE) or little-endian (LE).
Computers store information in various-sized groups of binary bits. Each group is assigned a number, called its address, that the computer uses to access that data. On most modern computers, the smallest data group with an address is eight bits long, and is called a byte. Larger groups comprise two or more bytes; for example, a word often contains 32 bits or 64 bits.
There are two principal ways a computer could number the individual bytes in a larger group, starting at either end. A big-endian system stores the most significant byte of a word at the smallest memory address and the least significant byte at the largest. A little-endian system, in contrast, stores the least-significant byte at the smallest address. Of the two, big-endian is thus closer to the way the digits of numbers are written left-to-right in English, with the most significant digit first, comparing digits to bytes and assuming addresses increase from left to right.
“Endianness” enters the record as the order of the bytes, comprising a digital word, in computer memory, based on significance. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Endianness, order and bytes can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Endianness” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Endianness, order and bytes provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q339338. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Endianness” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.