Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!elroy!cit-vax!wen-king
From: wen-king@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (King Su)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Endian wars
Message-ID: <9468@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 9 Feb 89 04:27:19 GMT
References: <6133@columbia.edu> <186@aucsv.UUCP> <21557@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: wen-king@cit-vax.UUCP (Wen-King Su)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 25

In article <21557@ames.arc.nasa.gov> lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Hugh LaMaster) writes:
>Now, DEC just turned down the chance to start evolving in the direction
<of common formats with their new RISC machine, so, the best we can hope
>for now is a common interchange file format that all machines would create 
<when data interchange is required.  I suggest that the time is ripe for
>the development of such a standard.  One small request - people who are
<working on creating such a standard please include 64 bit integer
>(and floating point, but that is usual) formats - there are quite a few
<uses for 64 bit integers, and some machines that really need access to
>integers at least 48 bits long.

You mean DEC has finally decided to go big-endian?  That is news to me.
The little-endian format is the current dominate format - remember all
the IBM PC's and their clones.  To evolve in the direction of a common
format would mean to take the little-endian route.  I would say that
the day we have a common format will come a day after US adopts the
metric system.

The SUN's XDR library has already provided us with a common interchange
file format.  It probably does not address 64 bit integers.

-- 
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| Wen-King Su  wen-king@vlsi.caltech.edu  Caltech Corp of Cosmic Engineers |
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