Location arithmetic

Location arithmetic (Latin arithmeticæ localis) is the additive (non-positional) binary numeral systems, which John Napier explored as a computation technique in his treatise Rabdology (1617), both symbolically and on a chessboard-like grid.

Napier's terminology, derived from using the positions of counters on the board to represent numbers, is potentially misleading in current vocabulary because the numbering system is non-positional.