*BSD News Article 52004


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From: emb121 (Eric Bennett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc,comp.sys.mac.system,comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: BSD UNIX on a PowerMac??
Date: 1 Oct 1995 20:08:27 GMT
Organization: Penn State University, Center for Academic Computing
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In article <44idbi$a52@park.uvsc.edu>
Terry Lambert <terry@cs.weber.edu> writes:

> The other problem is that the Mac word order is inverted, so you
> have to write the UNIX "wrong" to use those routines (or take an
> endian switch hit each time you do).

From the Linux/PowerPC FAQ:

========================================================================
=============
Is Linux/PowerPC little or big endian ? 

Big. PowerPCs take their instructions big end first, but can be set to
take their data either way. Set for little-endian data, a PowerPC slows
down about 3% (this number is unconfirmed). Linux/PowerPC is big-endian
for the following reasons: 

1) The PowerMac operating system is big-endian; 
2) AIX, the IBM POWER/PowerPC operating system, is big-endian; 
3) Net-order is big-endian; 
4) It is a physical fact, like gravity, that big-endian is The Right
Way. 
========================================================================
=============

Does this make Linux/PPC and AIX "wrong?" :)  Anybody know of the 68030
Mac port of
BSD is also big-endian?


-Eric Bennett (ericb@psu.edu)

Drawing on my fine command of the language, I said nothing.
-Robert Benchley