Early development by Johnson and Pflaumer
The patented HDCD technology was developed and perfected between 1986 and 1991
by Keith Johnson and Pflash Pflaumer, two preeminent technologists in the audio
arena. In 1995, the HDCD technology was officially introduced to the market.
Microsoft is building on this success and extending the reach of the decoder
technology by building relationships with large, established audio integrated
circuit (IC) vendors focused on the CD player, audio/video (A/V) receiver, and
DVD markets.
Keith Johnson is a GRAMMY-nominated recording engineer who also coauthored
several patents covering optical disc technology that are the basis of today's
video discs and digital audio CDs. Johnson cofounded Gauss Electrophysics where
he invented the technology used throughout the industry that allows high-speed,
high-quality duplication of prerecorded audio tapes.
Pflash Pflaumer is well known to those in computer networking as the inventor of
TOPS, the first local area network that connected IBM PCs, Apple Macintosh, and
minicomputers running UNIX. For more than three years, TOPS was the #1
international best-selling Macintosh network product and earned Pflaumer several
awards. Later, the company he cofounded to develop TOPS was acquired by Sun
Microsystems.
Adoption by professional audio studios and high-profile recording artists
More than 5,000 HDCD recordings have been made by leading mastering studios
around the world. More than 250 HDCD recordings have appeared on the Billboard
Top 200 chart, and more than 175 HDCD recordings have been nominated for GRAMMY
Awards. (View a list of the HDCD GRAMMY nominees in 1998,
1999, 2000,
and 2001).
Adoption by leading audio chip and consumer electronics manufacturers
Leading audio chip manufacturers—including Analog Devices, Burr Brown,
Motorola, Sanyo, and Zoran—have licensed this same HDCD technology to develop
HDCD chips for the general audio market. HDCD decoder integrated circuits (ICs),
which include HDCD decoding and HDCD filtering, are a worldwide standard in
high-fidelity audio systems, with more than 100 models of HDCD-equipped players
now available from leading consumer electronics companies like Denon, Harman
Kardon, Rotel and Toshiba.
These new chips will be used in a wide range of playback products such as DVD
players, A/V receivers, mini-component systems, MiniDisc (MD) players, and CD
players, changers, and portables. The HDCD decoder chip used in these consumer
products contains the HDCD high-precision digital filter, which improves the
sound quality of all types of digital audio recordings. This means that any
A/V receiver, CD player, DVD player, and MiniDisc player equipped with HDCD will
produce significantly better sound from your entire collection of CDs, DVDs, and
MDs. |
