Compact Disk: Inventor, Use and Development

Baca Juga

FEMUSINDO.com - Initially, compact disks (CDs) were created only to be a new platform for audio (music) players.

With digital technology, audio quality has become better than analog tape technology on cassettes.

A compact disc is a printed plastic disc containing digital data that is "read" by a laser beam.

A compact disc is an evolution of LaserDisc technology, where a focused laser beam is used that allows for the high information density required for high-quality digital audio signals.

Unlike previous art by Optophonie and James Russell, the information on the disc is read from a reflective layer using a laser as a light source through a protective substrate.

This compact disc was created by Philips Electronics NV and Sony Corporation in 1980.

Since its introduction in 1982, audio CDs have almost completely replaced phonograph discs as a medium for high-fidelity music recordings.

First released in Japan in October 1982, the CD was the second optical disc technology to be invented, after the much larger LaserDisc (LD).

History of the Compact Disc

Before the CD, there was an early device that used light to record and play back sound signals on transparent photographs, first introduced in 1931 by Optophone.

More than thirty years later, American inventor James T. Russell is credited with inventing the first system for recording digital media onto a photosensitive plate. 

Russell's patent application was filed in 1966, and he was granted a patent in 1970.

Prototype inventions were developed independently by Philips and Sony in the late 1970s. After litigation, Sony and Philips licensed Russell's patent for recording in 1988.

Development of the Compact Disc

In later years, compact discs were adapted for non-audio computer data storage purposes as CD-ROMs and their derivatives.

As of 2007, an estimated 200 billion CDs, including audio CDs, CD-ROMs, and CD-Rs, had been sold worldwide.

The CD gained rapid popularity in the 1990s, quickly surpassing all other audio formats in the United States by 1991, ending the dominance of vinyl and cassette tapes.

By 2000, the CD accounted for 92.3% of all US music sales. The CD is considered the last dominant audio format of the album era.

The advent of MP3, iTunes, mobile ringtones, and other downloadable music formats in the mid-2000s ended the CD's decade-long dominance.

The format was later adapted (as the CD-ROM) for general-purpose data storage and could initially hold more data than a personal computer hard disk drive.

Several other formats were later developed, both pre-printed and blank and user-writable. (*)