Multiple-Byte Integer Data Types.

The multiple-byte integer data types (CDF_INT2, CDF_UINT2, CDF_INT4, and CDF_UINT4) are encoded in one of two ways: big-endian   or   little-endian. Big-endian has the least significant byte (LSB) in the highest memory location while little-endian has the LSB in the lowest memory location. The supported computers use big-endian or little-endian as shown in Table 2.3. Network (XDR) encoding uses big-endian encoding for multiple-byte integer data types.   

Big-Endian      Little-Endian
----------      -------------
Sun             VAX
SGi Iris        DECstation
IBM RS6000      IBM PC
HP 9000         DEC Alpha (OSF/1)
NexT            DEC Alpha (OpenVMS)
Macintosh