US Patent 7587526 Endianness independent data structures

Patent 7587526 was granted and assigned to Microsoft on September, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Overview Structured Data Issues Contributors Activity

Is a

Patent

Patent attributes

Current Assignee

Microsoft

Patent Jurisdiction

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Patent Number

75875260

Patent Inventor Names

Ankur Varma0

Andrew W. Walters0

Date of Patent

September 8, 2009

Patent Application Number

110685370

Date Filed

February 28, 2005

Patent Primary Examiner

‌

Henry W. H. Tsai

Patent abstract

Embedding endianness information within data and sending and receiving data with the embedded endianness information. Data may be contained in a data structure. To embed endianness information in a data structure, unused bits in a data structure are identified. A number of the unused bits are then selected based on the possible unpacking combinations of the data structure. The endian bit values are set to a pattern to indicate the endianness of the data structure. Data that has been packed by a transmitting module can be unpacked by a receiving module based on the detected endian bits. An algorithm may be used to determine which unused bits to select as the endian bits.