A look at the history of CD.....

The compact disc and more specifically, audio compact disc (CD-DA) were introduced in the market in 1980 by Philips and Sony as an alternative to the vinyl disc and audio cassettes.

In 1984 both companies extended the technology so it can be used to store and retrieve data an so the CD-ROM was born. Since then, the compact disc has change significantly the way we listen music and store data.

In 1990 again Philips and Sony expand the technology and created the Recordable compact disc (CD-R). Up to then, the CDs were manufactured by industrial stamping with a master made from the original.

Philips contributed most of the physical design, which was similar to the laserdisc format it had previously created with regards to using pits and lands on the disk that are read by a laser. Sony contributed the digital-to-analog circuitry, and especially the digital encoding and error-correction code designs.


After the specification was set, both manufacturers were in a race to introduce the first commercially available CD audio drive. Because of its greater experience with digital electronics, Sony won that race and beat Philips to market by one month, when on October 1, 1982 Sony introduced the CDP-101 player and the world's first commercial CD recordingBilly Joel's 52nd Street album. The player was first introduced in Japan and then Europe; it wasn't available in the United States until early 1983. In 1984, Sony also introduced the first automobile and portable CD players.