As computer systems were constantly innovated and expanded, complexity becaame an ever greater challenge. It eventually became practically impossible, in fact, for any one single person, to understand every aspect of the technology. A large eco-system consisting of countless scientists, engineers and IT specialists carries the ever evolving body of knowledge of computer engineering. Several strategies have been adopted, over the years, to tackle the complexity problem.
Computing devices, whether they are human fingers, the abacus, prayer beads, the Analytical Machine of Babbage, or an i7 CPU, are in fact, in essence, counting tools that enhance the counting facility of human brains, which know limits in their capacity to memorize large/complicated numbers. Where as mechanical tools are difined by material objects that represent counting units, electrical computers use differentiated modes of electrical voltage to represent such units.
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