ABSTRACT
The need for computers or computing devices, which were originally intended just for counting, is as old as humankind. This need for a counting mechanism was developed as part of the verbal communication between humans in ancient times. Such a mechanism was needed in order to express ideas related to quantities such as the number of sheep in the herd, the time that had passed since a specific event, or the distance from some place. Only at a later stage did the counting mechanism develop into a system that started using symbols for representing quantities. These symbols led to another significant development, which supported simple arithmetic operations.
