History of computing hardware

Please come to this website to get some information on history of computing hardware
http://www.answers.com/topic/history-of-computing-hardware?cat=technology

I am very interesting to find that: "A number of analog computers were constructed in ancient and medieval times to perform astronomical calculations". and "In 1623, Wilhelm Schickard built the first digital mechanical calculator[citation needed] and thus became the father of the computing era"

Thank you so much and have good weekend,

Long Tran