Philips publicly unveiled the world’s first Compact Disc (CD).

On 8 March 1979, the world’s first Compact Disc was introduced by Philips during a press conference in the Netherlands.

The prototype player called “Pinkeltje” looked sleek and compact on the presentation table.

However, the device was actually a dummy, while the real electronics were hidden under the table.

A cubic meter of electronic equipment, containing thousands of integrated circuits and resistors, handled the system’s processing.

These hidden electronics were connected to the prototype player with thick cables.

The large external setup performed the digital-to-analog conversion, which had not yet been miniaturized into microchips.

The Compact Disc was a revolutionary digital optical storage format developed by Philips in collaboration with Sony.
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