# What is mipsbe architecture?

## Januszzz

Like in subject, I've bought Mikrotik routerboard 433 and it has "mipsbe" architecture. Is this derivative of usual mips architecture or what?

Or maybe someone having experience in installing Gentoo on such arch?

Regards,

Janusz.

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## gringo

i´m not sure either but i´d say that means mips with big endian byteorder.

cheers

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## Januszzz

ok, mayby I should ask on gentoo-embedded, guys there know lots of things  :Smile: 

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## gringo

 *Quote:*   

> mayby I should ask on gentoo-embedded

 

yes, i would ask there too, i´m not sure but i always thought mips were bi-endian, IOW, they can be configured for both big and little endian, so that i´m quite confused with the name too.

cheers

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## eccerr0r

Usually when you write an OS, you choose one endianness and stick with it, that's why there's mipsel and mipsbe.  If you have to specify the endianness on every number the cpu processes, it'd add a lot of bloat.

I have not had any experience with mipsbe, all my MIPS machines are mipsel.

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## Januszzz

Thanks!

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