Unit-4

Lecture 21
 Byte Storage Methods
• Big-Endian
– Assigns MSB to least address and LSB to highest address
– Ex: 0 × DEADBEEF

Memory Location Value

Base Address + 0 DE
Base Address + 1 AD
Base Address + 2 BE
Base Address + 3 EF
 Byte Storage Methods contd.,
• Little Endian
– Assigns MSB to highest address and LSB to least address
– Ex: 0 × DEADBEEF

Memory Location Value

Base Address + 0 EF
Base Address + 1 BE
Base Address + 2 AD
Base Address + 3 DE
 Byte Storage Methods contd.,
• Little Endian
– Intel × 86 family
– Digital equipment corporation architectures (PDP – 11, VAX, Alpha)
• Big Endian
– Sun SPARC
– IBM 360 / 370
– Motorola 68000
– Motorola 88000
 Example
• Example: Show the contents of memory at
word address 24 if that word holds the
number given by 122E 5F01H in both the big-
endian and the little-endian schemes?
 Memory Interleaving
• If the main memory is structured as a collection of
physically separate modules, each with its own address
buffer register (ABR) and data buffer register (DBR),
memory access operations may proceed in more than
one module at the same time.
• Hence, aggregate rate of transmission of words to and
from the memory can be increased.
• Two methods of distribution of words among modules
• Consecutive words in a module
• Consecutive words in consecutive modules
 Consecutive words in a module

When consecutive locations are accessed, as happens when a

block of data is transferred to a cache, only one module is
involved.
 Consecutive words in consecutive modules

This method is called memory interleaving

Parallel access is possible. Hence, faster.
Higher average utilization of the memory system
 References
• Main Memory - Hamacher

• Key Characteristics of Main memory - stallings

• Cache Memory - Stallings

• Virtual Memory - Morris Mano

• Hamming Code - S​tallings