A bit-field may have type int, unsigned int, or signed int. Whether the high-order bit position of a “plain” int bit-field is treated as a sign bit is [B]implementation-defined[/B]. A bit-field is interpreted as an integral type consisting of the specified number of bits.
An implementation may allocate any addressable storage unit large enough to hold a bit-field. If enough space remains, a bit-field that immediately follows another bit-field in a structure shall be packed into adjacent bits of the same unit. If insufficient space remains, whether a bit-field that does not fit is put into the next unit or overlaps adjacent units is [B]implementation-defined[/B]. The order of allocation of bit-fields within a unit (high-order to low-order or low-order to high-order) is [B]implementation-defined[/B]. The alignment of the addressable storage unit is [B]unspecified[/B].