This week I traveled back to 1980 to witness the introduction of the CD. The CD was co-developed by Sony and Philips in 1979. Both companies had extensive backgrounds in audio technology. This joint effort was formed out of a necessity for an industry standard when many companies were researching their own formats and standards in compact discs. A standard disc was needed to unite all recording companies and equipment. The CD is read by a laser in the drive of the equipment. The laser converts the series of electronically charged pits into binary code (ones and zeros), then a computer reads it and converts it to sound, for example. The CD was not immediately successful; it took several years to outsell vinyl records. Although it took some time to outsell vinyl records, the quality of the sound and the capacity of a CD was much better than anything before it. The industry standard for writing and producing the CD was introduced by Sony and Philips via five books. Each of these books covered a different area. The series included the red, yellow, green, orange, and white books. The CD became very successful. It was used in computers and its technology was transferred to DVD format for larger files such as video. Thirty years later and the CD is still the most common physical format for music and computer files. The CD made it possible for all people to enjoy music in more places.
Primary Source
http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/A-Brief-History-of-CD/
Secondary Source
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/electromag/computers/compactdiscs/cd.html
Primary Document
An image that describes how a laser reads a cd
http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/02/amazing_laser_application_4_op_1.php
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