OTHER TECH

1948-1979

Columbia Records introduces the vinyl, 33^1/3-speed, Long Playing (LP) "microgroove" record. (Even now, the word "microgroove" gives us tingles.)

The laser is invented, paving the way for the scene in 1964's Goldfinger where James Bond nearly gets his privates zapped.

Japan's NHK Technical Research Institute demos a 12-bit Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) digital machine that records audio onto videotape at a sampling rate of 30 kHz (30,000 times per second). In 1969, Sony ups the ante to 13 bits at 47.25 kHz.

Dutch physicist Klass Compaan comes up with the idea for the CD. Ironically, his name actually means "Compact Disc" in Dutch. (Hah! Just messin' with ya.)

Compaan teams with Philips Electronics to produce a glass CD prototype. No doubt, it quickly gets scratched and starts skipping.

Another inventor - American physicist James T. Russell - comes up with a CD concept. Sony will eventually license Russell's technology.

MCA and Philips introduce DiscoVision - a dual-sided, LP-size, analog videodisc read by a laser. The format is called LaserVision by the time it hits the market in 1978.

A CD prototype is demo'ed in Europe and Japan. Philips and Sony create the format's standard: 16-bit audio at a 44.1-kHz sampling rate on a 120mm-diameter disc that's read by a laser and holds up to 74 minutes of music. (Why 74? So all of Beethoven's Ninth can fit on one disc.)

The 1980s