little-endian

little-endian

(data, architecture)A computer architecture in which, withina given 16- or 32-bit word, bytes at lower addresses havelower significance (the word is stored "little-end-first").The PDP-11 and VAX families of computers and Intelmicroprocessors and a lot of communications and networkinghardware are little-endian.

The term is sometimes used to describe the ordering of unitsother than bytes; most often, bits within a byte.

Compare big-endian, middle-endian. See NUXI problem.