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FromPatrick Lerda <>
SubjectRe: endiannes of the kernel
DateThu, 29 Jul 1999 09:59:33 +0200
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<TITLE>Re: endiannes of the kernel</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Linux has been written on a little endian architecture: intel. In little-endian mode</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">linux is well tested, the kernel works perfectly. If you chose big-endian mode, linux</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">is still operational, but some parts of the kernel will be broken. Drivers, filesystems etc...</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">must be written in a big-endian compatible way, all 16bits, 32bits access to</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">hardware or to external data structures must be converted using some macros</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">defined in the linux kernel. A lot of drivers were written specifically for intel and are not big-endian</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">compatible...</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">So linux is more reliable in little endian.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">LERDA Patrick</FONT>
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