Philips Honored with IEEE Milestone Award for the Development of CD

Philips Honored with IEEE Milestone Award for the Development of CD

Video link: http://pubstr.datiq.net/capital/philipsEN.wmv

EINDHOVEN, The Netherlands, March 4/PRNewswire/ -- IEEE, (http://www.ieee.org/portal/site) the world's largest technical
professional society, announced today that it will be granting its
prestigious IEEE Milestone Award
(http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/milestones_intro.html) to
Royal Philips Electronics (http://www.philips.com/) for its contribution to
the development of the Compact Disc (CD) on March 6th 2009. The award
coincides with the 30th anniversary of the historic demonstration of the
first CD prototype codenamed "Pinkeltje" on 8 March 1979.

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.

"The compact disc was a revolutionary new concept that fulfilled a great
consumer demand for a robust, high quality compact audio medium," says John
Vig, (http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/corporate/board/executives.html) 2009
IEEE President and Chief Executive Officer. "By leveraging research advances
in optics, mechatronics, microelectronics, digital signal processing and
error control coding, a unique platform was created that has really changed
the audio as well as the computing world."

"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,
(http://www.philips.com/about/company/management/groupmanagementcommittee/
index.page) Chief Technology Officer of Philips Electronics. "The Compact
Disc demonstrated clearly that continued long-term investments in
breakthrough innovation during an economic downturn can not only contribute
significantly to the company's success, but even have the power to revitalize
a complete industry in decline."

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The Milestone award is an initiative of the IEEE History Center. Since
the program was established in 1983, the IEEE has only awarded 83 milestone
awards
(http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones)
including companies like IBM (magnetic disk memory), Hydro-Quebec (735 kV
transmission technology), JVC (VHS video) and now Philips with the
commemoration of Compact Disc.

Full press release and more information IEEE.org
(http://www.ieee.org/portal/site) and IEEE Benelux
(http://www.ieee.nl/milestone.html)

Source: IEEE Benelux

Media contacts: IEEE - Francine Tardo, f.tardo@ieee.org, +1-732-465-5865; IEEE - Hans Peek, h.peek@ieee.org +31(0)40-2832249; Philips - Hans Driessen, hans.driessen@philips.com,: +31(0)610610417

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