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- Path: mayne.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca!not-for-mail
- From: c2a192@ugrad.cs.ubc.ca (Kazimir Kylheku)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
- Subject: Re: What is byte-alignment?
- Date: 1 Apr 1996 19:31:30 -0800
- Organization: Computer Science, University of B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
- Message-ID: <4jq72iINNbpa@mayne.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca>
- References: <4jprfe$c6q@alcor.usc.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: mayne.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca
-
- In article <4jprfe$c6q@alcor.usc.edu>, Abu Wawda <wawda@alcor.usc.edu> wrote:
- >I often hear the phrase "byte-aligment" in this newsgroups, yet have
- >no clue what it is. Can someone please explain it to me? It comes up
- >often when people talk about structures. Thanks in advance,
-
- This is an issue that arises when a memory module is not quite properly seated
- in the ZIF socket. The result is that when the CPU is reading a word, the most
- significant bit may be missing, the least significant bit is undefined, and all
- the ones in the middle are shifted by one. (Or vice versa).
-
- This is really a historical misnomer: knowledgeable professionals refer to this
- as bit alignment.
-
- In any case, if you suspect that you are having problems due to alignment, have
- your workstation aligned at an authorized service facility.
-
- This is related to ``endian-ness'' problems, which result from inserting memory
- modules and peripherals backward. Every computer is normally little-endian,
- since Intel discovered way back in the early 70's that this is a better way to
- go. This means that the least significant byte is always to the left when you
- look at the motherboard from the correct angle.
- --
-
-