Before microprocessors, most computers used big-endian, but the PDP-11 was a notable exception. The Datapoint 2200 used simple bit-serial logic with little-endian to facilitate carry propagation. When Intel developed the 8008 microprocessor for Datapoint, they used little-endian for compatibility. However, as Intel was unable to deliver the 8008 in time, Datapoint used a medium scale integration (MSI) equivalent.[2][3]
Dealing with data of different endianness is sometimes termed the NUXI problem.[4] This terminology alludes to the byte order conflicts encountered while adapting UNIX, which ran on the little-endian PDP-11, to a big-endian computer such as the IBM Series/1. One of the first programs converted was supposed to print out Unix, but on the Series/1 it printed nUxi instead.[5] Unix was one of the first systems to allow the same code to run on, and transfer data between, platforms with different internal representations.