jdb@mordor.UUCP (John Bruner) (09/04/84)
The weird byte ordering for VAX floating point is due to compatibility with the floating-point format on the PDP-11. The little-endian order for bytes within a 16-bit word and big-endian order of 16-bit words is also visible on the PDP-11 in its representation of 32-bit long integers (both by the floating-point processor and the EIS multiply and divide instructions). -- John Bruner (S-1 Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) MILNET: jdb@mordor.ARPA [jdb@s1-c] (415) 422-0758 UUCP: ...!ucbvax!dual!mordor!jdb ...!decvax!decwrl!mordor!jdb