|
|
|
Big-Endian and Little-Endian Compatibility
The FairCom Server automatically allows big-endian and little-endian machines to share data across the same network. The FairCom term for this type of logic is “Netformat.”
Netformat logic automatically controls all aspects of data byte ordering (big-endian/little-endian). The server process defines the ordering of the data (High/Low "big-endian" or Low/High "little-endian") while the client process dictates the alignment of the file.
Example
To further illustrate the power of the Netformat logic, review the following network scenario:
All data files will be stored in a High/Low (most significant byte, "big-endian") format used by the IBM POWER 7 CPU. Files created by the Intel Windows application will be word aligned (the default with Microsoft Visual Studio compiler). The applications will all be able to share the same files (assuming the application developer has aligned all numeric fields on at least a 2-byte boundary for this example—a good C programming practice).
