> On Aug 15, 2024, at 1:27 PM, Michael Thompson <michael.99.thomp...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Danny Cohen, author of "On holy wars and a plea for peace", on the left and
> me in the white shirt, taken in 2003.
>
> MIPS CPUs can be configured by the hardware to run in either big-endian or
> little-endian mode.
Indeed, though depending on the vendor, support for one of the modes may be
marginal.
I remember evaluating the Raza (now Broadcom) XLR processor when it first came
out. Was told it supported little endian, which we needed. Tried to configure
the eval unit in little endian mode -- dead as a doornail.
Asked the rep. Answer: "well, the *hardware* is designed to support it, but
the power on boot configuration code is big endian only". Oh. Ended up
spending a month or two converting fun stuff like DDR timing tuning loops to
little endian. It did eventually work, but no thanks to the people selling the
device...
paul
