Earlier this month, IEEE, the world's largest technical professional society, granted its prestigious IEEE Milestone Award to Philips for its contribution to the development of the Compact Disc. The award coincides with the 30th anniversary of the historic demonstration of the first CD prototype codenamed "Pinkeltje" on 8 March 1979.

The CD project was led by Joop Sinjou (pictured) who started working for Philips in 1952. Throughout his career he worked on the development of audio-video products.

Despite the recession of the early 1980s, Philips and Sony invested and planned for the successful commercial introduction of the Compact Disc in 1982. The CD was the first ever digital mass consumer product to find its way into almost every consumer's home. Since its introduction in 1982, over 3.5 billion audio CD players, 3 billion CD-ROM drives and an astonishing 240 billion CD discs have been sold.

"By building a strong IP position in optics and signal processing, Philips has contributed to a high point in convenience, comfort and quality in the consumers' audio & video experience, and to the related global business success in optical storage (CD, DVD and Blu-ray). This also led to spin-offs in semiconductor's lithography and future generation biomedical sensors," says Rick Harwig, Chief Technology Officer of Philips Electronics.

Story filed 31.03.09