From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 4 19:39:03 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E92E716A46B for ; Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:39:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailnull@mips.inka.de) Received: from mail-in-08.arcor-online.net (mail-in-08.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.48]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FC8C13C447 for ; Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:39:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mailnull@mips.inka.de) Received: from mail-in-17-z2.arcor-online.net (mail-in-17-z2.arcor-online.net [151.189.8.34]) by mail-in-08.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id EFB4227B448 for ; Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:23:34 +0100 (CET) Received: from mail-in-02.arcor-online.net (mail-in-02.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.42]) by mail-in-17-z2.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id C752345C047 for ; Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:23:34 +0100 (CET) Received: from kemoauc.mips.inka.de (dslb-088-067-252-125.pools.arcor-ip.net [88.67.252.125]) by mail-in-02.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BC0736E86F for ; Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:23:34 +0100 (CET) Received: from kemoauc.mips.inka.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by kemoauc.mips.inka.de (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m14INYE3048176 for ; Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:23:34 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from mailnull@kemoauc.mips.inka.de) Received: (from mailnull@localhost) by kemoauc.mips.inka.de (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id m14INX7v048171 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:23:33 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from mailnull) From: naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber) Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 18:23:32 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <1563a4fd0802040403x2b71eaa1yd3d8f78e7742843b@mail.gmail.com> <200802041320.14955.wundram@beenic.net> <20080204142943.U8012@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> <200802041436.52389.wundram@beenic.net> Originator: naddy@mips.inka.de (Christian Weisgerber) To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.92/5680/Mon Feb 4 17:24:59 2008 on mail-in-02.arcor-online.net X-Virus-Status: Clean Subject: Re: Endianness of freeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:39:04 -0000 Heiko Wundram (Beenic) wrote: > > Alpha is little endian. i had alpha 21066 running linux. > > Not true. Alpha is big- or little-endian (so, it's bi-endian), Alpha is little-endian in practice. I've never heard of DEC--or anybody else for that matter--building a big-endian alpha. Note that DEC's previous CPU architecture, the VAX, was also little-endian. > depending on how it's booted, ... on how _the CPU_ is booted, yes. By the time you are running firmware and thinking of booting an operating system, it's much too late. > and IIRC the Windows NT version running on Alpha used the > big-endian mode of the CPU. But I might be mistaken. I think you are mistaken. The ARC MIPS platform, which Windows NT originally was written for, was also little-endian. -- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de