Abacus is a Latin word that has its origins in the Greek words abax or abakon (meaning "table" or "tablet") which in turn, possibly

originated from the Semitic word abq, meaning "sand". The abacus is one of many types of counting devices which are used to count large
numbers.
Why does the abacus exist?

It is difficult to imagine counting without numbers, but there was a time when written numbers
did not exist. The earliest counting device was the human hand and its fingers, capable of
counting up to 10 things; toes were also used to count in tropical cultures. Then, as even larger
quantities (greater than ten fingers and toes could represent) were counted, various natural
items like pebbles, sea shells and twigs were used to help keep count.

Merchants who traded goods needed a way to keep count (inventory) of the goods they bought
and sold. Various portable counting devices were invented to keep tallies. The abacus is one of
many counting devices invented to help count large numbers. When the Hindu-Arabic number
system came into use, abaci were adapted to use place-value counting.

Abaci evolved into electro-mechanical calculators, pocket slide-rules, electronic calculators and
now abstract representations of calculators or simulations on smartphones.

What is the difference between a counting board and an abacus?

It is important to distinguish the early abacuses (or abaci) known as counting boards from the
modern abaci. The counting board is a piece of wood, stone or metal with carved grooves or
painted lines between which beads, pebbles or metal discs were moved. The abacus is a device,
usually of wood (romans made them out of metal and they are made of plastic in modern
times), having a frame that holds rods with freely-sliding beads mounted on them.

Both the abacus and the counting board are mechanical aids used for counting; they are not
calculators in the sense we use the word today. The person operating the abacus performs
calculations in their head and uses the abacus as a physical aid to keep track of the sums, the
carrys, etc.

What did the first counting board look like?

The earliest counting boards are forever lost because they were constructed of perishable materials like wood.

Educated guesses can be made about the construction of counting boards based on early
writings of Plutarch and others.
Used in outdoor markets of those times, the simplest counting board involved drawing lines in
the sand with ones fingers or with a stylus, and placing pebbles between those lines as place-
holders representing numbers (the spaces between the lines would represent the units 10s, 100s,
etc.); two pebbles inthe 10s column would indicate 20. Affluent merchants could afford small
wooden tables having raised borders that were filled with sand (usually coloured blue or
green). A benefit of these counting boards on tables, was that they could be moved without
disturbing the calculation— the table could be picked up and carried indoors.

With the need for portable devices, wooden boards with grooves carved into the surface were
then created and wooden markers (small discs) were used as place-holders. The wooden boards
then gave way to even more more durable materials like marble and metal (bronze) used with
stone or metal markers.

COUNTING DEVICES THROUGH THE AGES

The evolution of the counting device can be divided into three ages: Ancient Times, Middle Ages, and Modern Times.

This time-line above (click to enlarge) shows the evolution from the earliest
counting board to the present day abacus. The introduction of the Arabic numbering
system in Western Europe stopped further development of counting boards.
Compare the quick rate of progress in last one-thousand years to the slow progress
during the first one-thousand years of civilization.

ANCIENT TIMES

The Salamis Tablet, the Roman Calculi and Hand-abacus are from the period c. 300 B.C.E. to c. 500 C.E.

THE SALAMIS TABLET

The oldest surviving counting board is the Salamis tablet (originally thought to be a gaming board), used by the Babylonians circa 300 B.C.,
discovered in 1846 on the island of Salamis.
It is a slab of white marble measuring 149cm in length, 75cm in width and 4.5cm thick, on which
are 5 groups of markings. In the center of the tablet are a set of 5 horizontal parallel lines
divided equally by a perpendicular vertical line, capped with a semi-circle at the intersection of
the bottom-most horizontal line and the vertical line.

Below these lines is a wide space with a horizontal crack dividing it. Below this crack is another
group of eleven parallel lines, again divided into two sections by a line perpendicular to them
but with the semi-circle at the top of the intersection; the third, sixth and ninth of these lines are
marked with a cross where they intersect with the vertical line.

Three sets of Greek symbols (numbers from the acrophonic system) are arranged along the
left, right and bottom edges of the tablet.
During Greek and Roman times, counting boards, like the Roman hand-abacus, that survive
are constructed from stone and metal (as a point of reference, the Roman empire fell circa 500
C.E.).

THE MIDDLE AGES

The Apices, the Coin-board and the Line-board are from the period c. 5 C.E. to c. 1400 C.E.

THE EXCHEQUER
The “exchequer” derives is name from the chequered table which was used in England from c. 1100 for calculating expenditure and receipts.
 “The Exchequer is an oblong board measuring about 10 feet by
5...with a rim around it about four finger breadths in height, to
prevent anything set on it from falling off. Over it is spread a cloth,
bought in Easter term, with a special pattern, black, ruled with
lines a foot, or a full span, apart. In the spaces between them are
placed the counters, in their ranks.
The accountant sits in the middle of his side of the table, so that
everybody can see him, and so that his hand can move freely at
its work. In the lowest space on the right, he places the heap of
the pence; in the second the shillings; in the third the pounds…As
he reckons, he must put out the counters and state the numbers
simultaneously, lest there should be a mistake in the number.
When the sum demanded of the sheriff has been set out in heaps
of counters, the payments made into the Treasury or otherwise
are similarly set out in heaps underneath. The lower line is simply
subtracted from the upper.”

—The Dialogue on the Exchequer, 1177.

In the Middle Ages, wood became the primary material for manufacturing counting boards; the
orientation of the beads also switched from vertical to horizontal. In Western Europe, as
arithmetic (calculating using written numbers) gained in popularity in the latter part of the
Middle Ages, the use of counting boards began to diminish and eventually disappear by 1500.
Arithmetic brought about the invention of logarithms by John Napier and logarithmic scales by
Edmund Gunter. In 1622, William Oughtred used these two inventions together and invented
the slide rule which lasted until modern times when the scientific calculator became popular in
the early 1970s.

MODERN TIMES

The Suan-pan, the Soroban and the Schoty are from the period c. 1200 A.D to the present.

SUAN-PAN

The abacus, called Suan-Pan in Chinese, as it appears today, was first chronicled circa 1200
C.E. in China. The device was made of wood with metal re-inforcements. On each rod, the
classic Chinese abacus has 2 beads on the upper deck and 5 on the lower deck; such an abacus is
also referred to as a 2/5 abacus. The 2/5 style survived unchanged until circa 1850 at which time
the 1/5 (one bead on the top deck and five beads on the bottom deck) abacus appeared.
SOROBAN

Circa 1600 C.E., use and evolution of the Chinese 1/5 abacus was begun by the Japanese via
Korea. In Japanese, the abacus is called Soroban. The 1/4 abacus, a style preferred and still
manufactured in Japan today, appeared circa 1930. The 1/5 models are rare today and 2/5
models are rare outside of China (excepting Chinese communities in North America and
elsewhere).
SCHOTY
The Russian abacus is called a schoty (pronounced "SHAW-tee"). It was invented in the 17th century and is still in use today.
The design of the schoty is based on a pair of human hands (each row has ten beads,
corresponding to ten fingers). The abacus is operated by sliding the beads right-to-left.

If you hold out both hands in front of you, palms facing out, you will see that your two thumbs
are beside each other and two sets of 4 fingers spread out from there. Similarily, on the schoty,
each row has two sets of 4 beads of the same colour on the outside, representing the two sets of
4 fingers and the two inner-most beads of the same colour representing the two thumbs.
The "home" position for the beads is on the right hand side. The bottom-most row represents 1s,
the next row up represents 10s, then 100s, and so on. So, counting is similar to counting on one's
fingers, the beads move from right to left: 1 to 10, and then carrying upwards to the next row.

Careful observers will note that the metal rods, on which the beads slide, have a slight
curvature to prevent the "counted" beads from accidently sliding back to the home-position.

MESOAMERICAN ABACUS
There have been recent suggestions of a Mesoamerican (the Aztec civilization that existed in
present day Mexico) abacus called the Nepohualtzitzin, circa 900-1000 C.E., where the counters
were made from kernels of maize threaded through strings mounted on a wooden frame. Since
it was made from perishable materials it is impossible to know whether such a tool ever existed.
There is also debate about whether the Incan Khipu was a three-dimensional binary calculator
or a form of writing, or both.
LEE KAI-CHEN ABACUS

In 1958 Lee Kai-chen published a manual for his "new" abacus designed with 4 decks (it
combines two abaci; the top abacus is a small 1/4 soroban and the bottom one is a 2/5 suan-
pan). According to the author, multiplication and division are easier using this modified abacus
and square roots and cubic roots of numbers can be calculated.
THE ABACUS TODAY

There are stores in China where merchants still use an abacus to tally a customer's bill. The photograph below, was taken by Ed Byrne in 2013, in a
store in Hong Kong.
The abacus is still in use today by shopkeepers in Asia and "Chinatowns" in North America. The
abacus is still taught in Asian schools, and a few schools in the West. Blind children are taught
to use the abacus where their sighted counterparts would be taught to use paper and pencil to
perform calculations.

One particular use for the abacus is teaching children simple mathematics and especially
multiplication; the abacus is an excellent substitute for rote memorization of multiplication
tables, a particularily detestable task for young children. The abacus is also an excellent tool for
teaching other base numbering systems since it easily adapts itself to any base.

Portable Computing Devices Today

The abacus, as a portable computing device, continued to evolve into the modern slide-rule, the
last mechanical evolution of a portable calculating device before the electronic era brought
about digital calculators. In 1972 the Hewlett Packard HP-35 scientific calculator made the slide-
rule obsolete.

A few decades later scientific calculators evolved into programmable calculators able to display
graphs and images on bitmapped LCD screens.

During the brief period when pocket calculators rose in popularity, the Sorocal/Sorokaru, a
hybrid abacus digital calculator was manufactured to help abacus users in the transition.
In the 21st century, portable counting devices rarely exist as separate entities. Instead they are
simulated as Apps running on desktop computers, smartphones and tablets. Civilization, which
began recording history with a stylus and a clay tablet thousands of years ago is re-using those
original terms today.

Abacus

The abacus is the most ancient calculating device known. It has endured
over time and is still in use in some countries. An abacus consists of a
wooden frame, rods, and beads. Each rod represents a different place value—
ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on. Each bead represents a number,
usually 1 or 5, and can be moved along the rods. Addition and subtraction
can easily be performed by moving beads along the wires of the abacus.

The word abacus is Latin. It is taken from the Greek word abax, which

means "flat surface." The predecessors to the abacus—counting boards
— were just that: flat surfaces. Often they were simply boards or tables on
which pebbles or stones could be moved to show addition or subtraction. The
earliest counting tables or boards may simply have been lines drawn in the
sand. These evolved into actual tables with grooves in them to move the
counters.

Technology has important effects on business operations. No matter the size of your

enterprise, technology has both tangible and intangible benefits that will help you make
money and produce the results your customers demand. Technologicalinfrastructure
affects the culture, efficiency and relationships of a business.

Technology is the way we apply scientific knowledge for practical purposes. It includes
machines (like computers) but also techniques and processes (like the way we produce
computer chips). ... In fact, a hammer and the wheel are two examplesof early
human technology. he application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims
of human life or, as it is sometimes phrased, to the change and manipulation
of the human environment.
The first personal computer. In 1975, Ed Roberts coined the term "personal computer"
when he introduced the Altair 8800. Although the first personal computer is considered
by many to be the KENBAK-1, which was first introduced for $750 in 1971

We could argue that the first computer was the abacus or its descendant, the slide rule,
invented by William Oughtred in 1622. But the first computer resembling today's modern
machines was the Analytical Engine, a device conceived and designed
byBritish mathematician Charles Babbage between 1833 and 1871.

There is a long history detailing the invention of computing and calculating machines.

The earliest recorded calculating device is the abacus. Used as a simplecomputing
device for performing arithmetic, the abacus most likely appeared firstin Babylonia
(now Iraq) over 5000 years ago.

Alan Turing is considered by many to be the father of modern computer science as the
world knows it. He formed the concept of the algorithms and computations with one of
his inventions, the Turing machine. Alan Turing was born on June 23, 1912 in England,
the son of Julius and Sara Turing.

Application Software Type Examples

Word processing software MS Word, WordPad and Notepad
Database software Oracle, MS Access etc
Spreadsheet software Apple Numbers, Microsoft Excel
Multimedia software Real Player, Media Player
Definition. A typical desktop computer consists of a computer system unit, a keyboard,
a mouse, and a monitor. The computer system unit is the enclosure for all the other
main interior components of a computer. It is also called the computer case, computer
chassis, or computer tower.

he Computer System Unit

The system unit is the box-like case that contains the electronic components of a computer. Many
people erroneously refer to this as the CPU. Here you will find devices like the power supply,
different drives, the fan, the connectors, and the motherboard. Note that in most cases, the monitor,
keyboard, and mouse will not be found inside the system unit layout.

Other names for the system unit include the computer chassis, cabinet, box, tower, enclosure,
housing, or simply case.

Parts of the Unit

These are some of the major components you are going to find inside your system unit. If you are
thinking of checking some of these parts out, make sure your computer is powered off and
disconnected from a power source. Be careful not to mess with your components if you are not very
familiar with them. Before touching anything, be aware of the ESD precautions.

A Computer Base Unit

Computer System Unit | Source

The Motherboard
The motherboard is sometimes called the system board or main board. It is the main circuit board of
a microcomputer. This component contains the connectors for attaching additional boards. All other
parts connect in one way or another to the motherboard.

This part typically contains the CPU, BIOS, memory, mass storage interfaces, serial and parallel
ports, expansion slots, and all the controllers required to control standard peripheral devices, such
as the display screen, keyboard, mouse, and disk drive.
When you are reading about motherboards, you won't fail to come across the term motherboard
form factors, which describes the general shape, the type of case, and the power supply it can use.
It also describes the physical organization of the motherboard.

A Labeled Motherboard | Source

Hard Disk Drive

A hard disk drive is a high capacity, non-volatile, magnetic data storage device with a volume (disk)
that is usually non-removable.

Data is magnetically read and written on the platter by read/write heads that float on a cushion of air
above the platters.
Hard Disk Drive | Source

Floppy Disk Drive

This is a disk drive that can read and write floppy disks, although they are obsolete nowadays.

These drives have been replaced by the USB flash disk drives in modern machines.
Diskette Drive | Source

Power Supply Unit

The power supply unit (PSU) is used to convert AC currents from the main supply to the different DC
voltages required by various computer components.

Power supplies are quoted as having a certain power output specified in watts, A standard power
supply would typically be able to deliver around 350 watts.

You will need more power from the power supply if your PC has more operating components.

Power Supply Unit | Source

CD-ROM Drive
This is a high capacity optical data storage device with a removable disk. It writes data onto or reads
data from a storage medium.

A CD-ROM drive may be connected to the computer via an IDE (ATA), SCSI, S-ATA, Firewire, or
USB interface or a proprietary interface.