Donor: Anonymous
The Compact Disc (or CD) is an optical disk used to store digital data. The format was originally developed as a joint effort of Philips and Sony, with the first version released at the "Red Book" in 1980. Initially, the CD format was developed to store and play back sound recordings only, but the format evolved to support data storage. CD Players have been commercially available since October 1982 whereas support for the Video CD came about 1993.
CD format is now overseen by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a non-profit, non-governmental, international agency. Historically, CD format was developed as a joint effort of Philips and Sony, with the first version released as the “Red Book” in 1980. Although this standard is widely used, the standard itself is available only through licensing from Philips, the IEC, or the American National Standards Institute.
Reference: Henry M. Walker, The Tao of Computing, Second Edition, 2012, pp. 128-129.
