Little-endian
<data, architecture> A computer architecture in which, within a given 16- or 32-bit
word, bytes at lower addresses have lower significance (the word is stored "little-end-first"). The
PDP-11 and
VAX families of computers and Intel {microprocessor}s and a lot of communications and networking hardware are little-endian.
The term is sometimes used to describe the ordering of units other than bytes; most often, bits within a byte.
Compare
big-endian,
middle-endian.
See
NUXI problem.
[
Jargon File]
