Definitions for "Big endian"
Keywords:  endian, sparc, risc, byte, significant
Binary format where most significant byte has the lowest address. This format is used on IBM 370 and most RISC designs.
Words in computers, are created from 2 or 4 bytes. In a big-endian architecture, the leftmost byte of a word is the most significant. In a little-endian architecture, the rightmost byte is most significant. Most PCs use little endian architecture; big endian architecture is mainly used in larger computers. See Little endian, Word and byte.
A method of data storage in which the least significant bit of a numeric value spanning multiple bytes is in the highest addressed byte. Contrast with little endian.