Byte ordering

There are two types of byte ordering. Big-endian format, this is where the byte containing the most significant bit is stored in the first memory location, followed by bytes decreasing in significance. IBM z/Architecture (Linux) mainframes use big-endian format. Intel x86 processors use little-endian format. This reverses the order of the sequence and stores the least significant byte at the first memory location.

Portability between little-endian and big-endian architecture depends on avoiding specific byte order operations, such as:

• Checking or redefining individual bytes of a COMP-5 data item.
• Specifying native Unicode encoding using UNICODE(NATIVE). You need to use UNICODE(PORTABLE) instead.

In addition you should avoid using data files created with native byte order.