BC File

What are BC files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BC file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your BC files.

What is a BC file?

BC files have multiple uses, and Big Crunch compressed is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Big Crunch compressed file

These BC files contain data compressed by the Big Crunch compression tool. Big Crunch was an experimental data compression project developed by the four students Eric Chanudet, Jérémie Roquet, Nicolas Ballas, and Paul Baudron, released under the name "the KaBoom group" in the mid-2000s.

How to open BC files

Important: Different programs may use files with the BC file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your BC file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested five different BC openers which you will find listed below.

Last updated: January 18, 2022

All known file formats using extension .BC

While Big Crunch compressed file is a popular type of BC-file, we know of 4 different uses of the .BC file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

LLVM Bitcode

These BC files are LLVM (Low-Level Virtual Machine) Bitcode file formats used to store tags and nested structures. Bitcode uses binary encoding. Bitcode is similar to XML because you can parse the file without understanding what the tags mean.

LLVM Bitcode Data

These BC files contain program pieces compiled by a compiler based on the LLVM compiler infrastructure into its binary intermediary representation format. LLVM-based compilers can compile several different programming language source code files into program files. During compilation, which is the transformation process from human-readable source code into a machine-executable format, LLVM outputs the compiled instructions in this machine-independent bitcode format. Other tools are used to transform these binary pieces into runnable programs targeted to various platforms.

Photoshop Thumbnail Cache

We know that one BC format is Photoshop Thumbnail Cache. We have not yet analyzed in detail what these files contain and what they are used for. We're working on it.

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of BC files. Remember, different programs may use BC files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about BC file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.