History of computers

By grievegm

  • Charles Babbage

    Charles Babbage and the difference engine The 1820s saw Babbage work on his 'Difference Engine', a machine which could perform mathematical calculations.He then developed plans for a bigger, better, machine - Difference Engine 2. He also worked on another invention, the more complex Analytical Engine, a revolutionary device on which his fame as a computer pioneer now largely rests.
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    History of computers

  • Ada Lovelace

    Ada Lovelace extra info She was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; thanks to this, she is sometimes considered the "World's First Computer Programmer".

  • CRT-Cathode Ray Tube

    CRT wikipediaThe cathode ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun (a source of electrons) and a fluorescent screen used to view images. It has a means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam onto the fluorescent screen to create the images. The image may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictures (television, computer monitor), radar targets and others.

  • Enigma

    Enigma wikipediaAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I.The early models were used commercially from the early 1920s, and adopted by military and government services of several countries — most notably by Nazi Germany before and during World War II.

  • Colossus

    Colossus computerColossus was the world's first electronic, digital, programmable computer. Colossus and its successors were used by British codebreakers to help read encrypted German messages during World War II. They used thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) to perform the calculations.Colossus was designed by engineer Tommy Flowers with input from Sidney Broadhurst, William Chandler, Allen Coombs and Harry Fensom.

  • ENIAC

    ENIAC wikipediaENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a Turing-complete digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.
    ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory.When ENIAC was announced in 1946 it was heralded in the press as a "Giant Brain".

  • UNIVAC

    UNIVAC specsUNIVAC 1The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the first commercial computer produced in the United States.It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was begun by their company, Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand.The first UNIVAC was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year.

  • Tim Berners Lee

    Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as "TimBL", is an English computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web. He made a proposal for an information management system in March 1989 and on 25 December 1990, with the help of Robert Cailliau and a young student at CERN, he implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet.

  • TFT-Thin-film transistor

    TFT wikipediaA thin-film transistor (TFT) is a special kind of field-effect transistor made by depositing thin films of a semiconductor active layer as well as the dielectric layer and metallic contacts over a supporting substrate. A common substrate is glass, since the primary application of TFTs is in liquid crystal displays. This differs from the conventional transistor where the semiconductor material typically is the substrate, such as a silicon wafer.

  • Computer mouse

    Computer mouseA mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons. It sometimes features other elements, such as "wheels", which allow the user to perform various system-dependent operations, or extra buttons or features that can add more control or dimensional input.

  • Floppy Disks

    What are floppy disks Floppy disks are small, removable, media storage devices. They record data onto a thin, circular magnetic film encased in a flat, square plastic jacket lined with fabric that removes dust particles.They are read and written by a floppy disk drive (FDD).They became commercially available in 1971. Floppy disks are somewhat antiquated, having been replaced by memory sticks and re-writable CD storage devices.

  • Pong

    Pong wikipediaPong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity. The aim is to defeat the opponent in a simulated table tennis game by earning a higher score. The game was originally manufactured by Atari Incorporated (Atari), who released it in 1972.

  • GPS (global positioning system)

    GPS wikipediaThe Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. It is maintained by the United States government and is freely accessible to anyone with a GPS receiver.

  • Cray 1

    Cray 1 wikipediaThe Cray-1 was a supercomputer designed, manufactured, and marketed by Cray Research. The first Cray-1 system was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, and it went on to become one of the best known and most successful supercomputers in history. The Cray-1's architect was Seymour Cray and the chief engineer was Cray Research co-founder Lester Davis.

  • Microsoft

    Microsoft wikipediaMicrosoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions.Microsoft rose to dominate the home computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems.

  • Apple 1

    Apple 1 wikipediaThe original Apple Computer, also known as the Apple I, is a personal computer released by the Apple Computer Company in 1976. They were designed and hand-built by Steve Wozniak.Wozniak's friend Steve Jobs had the idea of selling the computer. The Apple I was Apple's first product, and to finance its creation, Jobs sold his only means of transportation, a VW van and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for $500.It was demonstrated in April 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California

  • SInclair ZX80

    Sinclair ZX80The Sinclair ZX80 is a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Sinclair Research. It is notable for being the first computer available in the United Kingdom for less than a hundred pounds (£99.95). It was available in kit form, where purchasers had to assemble and solder it together, and as a ready-built version at a slightly higher cost.The ZX80 was very popular straight away, and for some time there was a waiting list of several months for either version of the machine.

  • IBM 5150

    BBC IBM 5150
    The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and first version of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform.The machine was not the first attempt to popularise computing but it soon came to define the global standard.It altered the way business was done forever and sparked a revolution in home computing.

  • Commodore 64

    Commodore 64 wikipediaThe C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes of RAM, and had favourable sound and graphical specifications when compared to contemporary systems such as the Apple II, at a price of $595 that was well below the $1200 demanded by Apple.
    During the C64's lifetime, sales totalled between 12.5 and 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time.

  • CD ROMs

    CD ROMs wikipedia CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-only memory) is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to,but not writable by,a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data.They are popularly used to distribute computer software, including video games and multimedia applications,though any data can be stored

  • "Classic" Mac OS

    History of Mac OS wikipediaOn January 24, 1984, Apple Computer Inc. (now Apple Inc.) introduced the Macintosh personal computer, with the Macintosh 128K model, which came bundled with what was later renamed the Mac OS, but then known simply as the System Software.The Macintosh is generally credited with popularizing the graphical user interface. The Mac OS has been pre-installed on almost every Macintosh computer sold.

  • Amstrad PCW

    Amstrad PCWThe Amstrad PCW series was a range of personal computers produced by British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider in the early years of the series' life. When it was launched, the cost of a PCW system was under 25% of the cost of almost all IBM-compatible PC systems in the UK.As a result PCWs became very popular in the home and small office markets, both in the UK and in Europe.

  • Windows 1.0

    Windows 1.0 is a 16-bit graphical operating environment, developed by Microsoft Corporation and released on November 20, 1985.It was Microsoft's first attempt to implement a multi-tasking graphical user interface-based operating environment on the PC platform. Windows 1.0 was the first version of Windows launched.It was succeeded by Windows 2.0 and support was discontinued on December 31, 2001.

  • Windows 2.0

    Windows 2.0 is a 16-bit Microsoft Windows GUI-based operating environment that was released on December 9, 1987 and is the successor to Windows 1.0. With Windows 2.1x in 1988, Windows 2.0 was supplemented by Windows/286 and Windows/386.Windows 2.0, Windows/286 and Windows/386 were superseded by Windows 3.0 in May 1990, but supported by Microsoft for fourteen years until December 31, 2001

  • OS System 6

    System 6 is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers. It was released in 1988 by Apple Computer and was part of the Mac OS line of operating systems. System 6 was shipped with various Macintosh computers until it was succeeded by System 7 in 1991.The boxed version of System 6 cost 49 USD when introduced.[1] System 6 is classed as a monolithic operating system. It featured an improved MultiFinder, which allowed for co-operative multitasking.

  • Windows 2.1x

    Windows 2.1x is a family of Microsoft Windows graphical user interface-based operating environments.
    Windows/286 2.10 and Windows/386 2.10 were released on May 27, 1988, less than a year after the release of Windows 2.0. These versions can take advantage of the specific features of the Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 processors. A hard disk was required for the first time to install Windows.

  • Web browsers

    SafariOperaInternet ExplorerGoogle ChromeFirefoxweb browser wikipediaA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content.The major web browsers are Firefox,Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.

  • Windows 3.0

    Windows 3.0, a graphical environment, is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, and was released on May 22, 1990. It became the first widely successful version of Windows and a rival to Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga on the GUI front. It was followed by Windows 3.1.

  • SNES

    SNES wikipediaThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia, and South America between 1990 and 1993.The SNES was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the 16-bit era despite its relatively late start and the fierce competition it faced in North America and Europe from Sega's Mega Drive.
    49.10 million Super NES units were sold worldwide.

  • Internet

    Internet wikipediaThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (often called TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies.

  • OS System 7

    System 7 (codenamed "Big Bang" and sometimes called Mac OS 7) is a single-user graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers. It was introduced on May 13, 1991 by Apple Computer.It succeeded System 6, and was the main Macintosh operating system until it was succeeded by Mac OS 8 in 1997. Features added with the System 7 release included virtual memory, personal file sharing, QuickTime, QuickDraw 3D, and an improved user interface.

  • Windows 3.1x

    Windows 3.1x is a series of 16-bit operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. The series began with Windows 3.1, which was first sold during March 1992 as a successor to Windows 3.0. Further editions were released between 1992 and 1994 until the series was superseded by Windows 95.

  • PlayStation

    PlayStation wikipediaThe PlayStation is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, 1994.The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices.
    The PlayStation was the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch.The last game for the system was FIFA Football 2005 released in October 2004

  • DVD

    DVDs wikipediaDVD is an optical disc storage format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions.
    Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD. DVDs are used in DVD-Video consumer digital video format and in DVD-Audio consumer digital audio format.

  • WIndows 95

    Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft,and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products. During development, it was referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename Chicago.
    Windows 95 integrated Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products. It featured significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1,

  • 1st feature length CGI film

    Toy Story wikipediaToy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated comedy film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's first feature film as well as the first ever feature film to be made entirely with CGI.Reviews were positive, praising both the technical innovation of the animation and the wit and sophistication of the screenplay,and it is now widely considered, by many critics, to be one of the greatest and most revolutionary films in the history of animation.

  • Windows NT 4.0

    Windows NT 4.0 is a preemptive,graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It was part of Microsoft's Windows NT line of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on 31 July 1996.It is a 32-bit Windows system available in both workstation and server editions with a graphical environment similar to that of Windows 95.

  • Mac OS 8

    Mac OS 8 (or System 8) is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It represented the largest overhaul of the Mac OS since the release of System 7, some six years previously. It puts more emphasis on color than previous operating systems. Mac OS 8 helped modernize the Mac OS while Apple developed its next generation operating system, Mac OS X.

  • Windows 98

    Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on May 15, 1998 and to retail on June 25, 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit monolithic product with an MS-DOS based boot loader.

  • Memory sticks

    memory stick wikipediaMemory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998,and is also used in general to describe the whole family of Memory Sticks. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds; Memory Stick Duo, a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick (including the PRO Duo); and the even smaller Memory Stick Micro (M2).

  • USB memory sticks

    USB flash driveA USB flash drive is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g. As of January 2012,256GB drives were available, 512GB and 1terabyte (TB) drives were in planning,and storage capacities as large as 2 terabytes are planned, with steady improvements in size and price per capacity expected.

  • Windows 98 second edition

    Windows 98 Second Edition (often shortened to SE) is an updated release of Windows 98, released on May 5, 1999. It includes fixes for many minor issues, improved WDM audio and modem support, improved USB support, the replacement of Internet Explorer 4.0 with Internet Explorer 5.0, Web Folders (WebDAV namespace extension for Windows Explorer), and related shell updates.

  • Mac OS 9

    Mac OS 9 was the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever,"highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as iTools and improved Open Transport networking.

  • Windows 2000

    Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000.It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the final release of Microsoft Windows to display the "Windows NT" designation.It was succeeded by Windows XP for desktop systems in October 2001

  • Windows Me

    Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006.

  • Mac OS X v10.0 "Cheetah"

    Mac OS X version 10.0, code named "Cheetah", is the first major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. Mac OS X v10.0 was released on March 24, 2001 for a price of US$129. It was the successor of the Mac OS X Public Beta.Mac OS X v10.0 was a radical departure from the previous “classic” Macintosh operating system and was Apple’s long awaited answer to the call for a next generation Macintosh operating system.

  • Windows XP

    Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base.The name "XP" is short for "eXPerience."

  • Mac OS X v10.1 "Puma"

    Mac OS X version 10.1, code named "Puma", is the second major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system.Version 10.1 was released on 25 September 2001 as a 'free update' to version 10.0. The operating system was handed out for no charge by Apple employees after Steve Jobs' keynote speech at the Seybold publishing conference in San Francisco.

  • iPod

    iPod wikipediaiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc.. The product line-up consists of the hard drive-based iPod classic, the touchscreen iPod touch, the compact iPod nano and the ultra-compact iPod shuffle. iPod classic models store media on an internal hard drive, while all other models use flash memory to enable their smaller size. As with many other digital music players, iPods can serve as external data storage devices.

  • Xbox

    Xbox wikipediaThe Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market, and competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast,and Nintendo's GameCube.The integrated Xbox Live service launched in November 2002 allowed players to play games online.Xbox's successor, the Xbox 360, was launched in November

  • Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar"

    Mac OS X version 10.2 "Jaguar" is the third major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system.The operating system was initially available on 23 August 2002 either for single-computer installations, and in a "family pack", which allows five installations on separate computers in one household.

  • Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther"

    Mac OS X Panther is the fourth major release of Mac OS X, Apple’s desktop and server operating system. It followed Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" and preceded Mac OS X Tiger. Apple released Panther on October 24, 2003.

  • Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger"

    Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther, which had been released 18 months earlier. Tiger was succeeded by Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard on 26 October 2007, after 30 months, making Tiger the longest running version of Mac OS X.Some of the new features include a fast searching system called Spotlight,a new version of the Safari web browser, Dashboard and a new 'Unified' theme.

  • Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs

    Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs ("WinFLP") is a thin client operating system from Microsoft, based on Windows XP Embedded, but optimized for older, less powerful hardware. It was released on 8 July 2006. Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs is not marketed as a full-fledged general purpose operating system, although it is functionally able to perform most of the tasks generally associated with one.

  • Wii

    Wii wikipediaThe Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others.A distinguishing feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detects movement in three dimensions.

  • Windows Vista

    Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its codename "Longhorn". On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide and was made available for purchase and download from Microsoft's website.

  • iOS 1.0

    iOS version history wikipediaiOS wikipediaiOS (originally iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it has since been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPad and Apple TV. Unlike Windows CE and Android, Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple hardware. As of March 6, 2012, Apple's App Store contained more than 550,000 iOS applications,which have collectively been downloaded more than 25 billion times.

  • Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard"

    Mac OS X Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007 as the successor of Tiger, and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a server version, Mac OS X Server.Leopard is the final version of Mac OS X to support the PowerPC architecture as Snow Leopard functions solely on Intel based Macs.

  • iOS 2.0

  • iOS 3.0

  • Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard"

    Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the seventh major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.On August 28, 2009, it was released worldwide,and was made available for purchase from Apple's website and its retail stores at the price of US$29 for a single-user license. Unlike previous versions of Mac OS X, the goals with Snow Leopard were improved performance, greater efficiency and the reduction of its overall memory footprint.

  • Windows 7

    Windows 7 is the current release of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, and media center PCs.Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009,and reached general retail availability worldwide on October 22, 2009. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time.

  • iPad

    iPad wikipediaThe iPad is a line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, apps and web content. Its size and weight fall between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The iPad runs on iOS, the same operating system used on Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone, and can run its own applications as well as iPhone applications.

  • iOS 4.0

  • Nintendo 3DS

    Nintendo 3DSThe Nintendo 3DS is a portable game console produced by Nintendo. The autostereoscopic device is able to project stereoscopic 3D effects without the use of 3D glasses or any additional accessories.The Nintendo 3DS features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS series software, including Nintendo DSi software.

  • Mac OS X v10.7 "Lion"

    Mac OS X Lion[1] (version 10.7; marketed as OS X Lion) is the eighth and current major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.Lion achieved golden master status on July 1, 2011,followed by its final release via the Mac App Store on July 20, 2011. Apple reported over 1 million Lion sales on the first day of its release.As of October 2011, Mac OS X Lion has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

  • iOS 5.0

  • ENIAC

    ENIACENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a Turing-complete digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.
    ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory.When ENIAC was announced in 1946 it was heralded in the press as a "Giant Brain". It boasted speeds one thousand times faster than electro-mechanical machines

  • Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

    Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition released on April 25, 2005 is an edition of Windows XP for x86-64 personal computers. It is designed to use the expanded 64-bit memory address space provided by the x86-64 architecture.
    The primary benefit of moving to 64-bit is the increase in the maximum allocatable system memory (RAM).

  • Wii U

    Wii U at E3The Wii U is an upcoming video game console by Nintendo, and is the successor to the Wii.[8] The system was unveiled during Nintendo's press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 on June 7, 2011, and is expected to be released during the fourth quarter of 2012 in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan.The console has been described as belonging to the eighth generation of video game consoles.[