3 ms·
AFAIK big-endian bit order makes the very very very low-level circuits easier. Want to compare two numbers? You can short-circuit (hah) as soon as the leftmost
by ThePadawan 5y ago
AFAIK big-endian bit order makes the very very very low-level circuits easier.
Want to compare two numbers? You can short-circuit (hah) as soon as the leftmost bit is different.
- bruce343434 5y agoWhy not just reverse the direction of the "comparison wiring" instead of the bit order?
- addingnumbers 5y agoDon't you just short-circuit as soon as any bit is different regardless of bit ordering?
- rowanG077 5y agoFor equality yes. But not for ordering purposes.
- gopalv 5y ago> big-endian bit order makes the very very very low-level circuits easier These probably invert pretty easily I suspect (the 1-bit bus with a latch would be the only order dependent thing). But as a human, it is definitely so much easier to write down 7 on paper tape if the numbers match the big endian order. The big-endian bit order definitely made my "write binary on paper" exercises in college much easier to read back. The whole "arabic numeral" thing is accidentally visible there, where you fill numbers right to left if you want the decimal points to align.
- benlivengood 5y agoIn processors bits are in parallel, and in any arithmetic operation more-significant bits depend on less-significant bits because of carry, so you'd want to stream bits least-significant first.