Early development by Keith Johnson
and Pflash 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 companies like
Denon, Harman Kardon, Rotel, Spectral, 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, 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.
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