Philips
More info
- Creator
- Gerard and Frederik Philips
- Released
- 1891
- Type
- Electronics conglomerate
A Dutch light-bulb factory that became one of the great inventors of storage media, then sold off nearly everything except medical equipment.
Founded in Eindhoven in 1891 to make light bulbs. Its research lab, NatLab, turned Philips into a standards factory: the compact cassette in 1963, which Lou Ottens' team let other manufacturers build licence-free; LaserDisc with MCA; and the compact disc with Sony in 1982, its rules collected in the Rainbow Books. The same year brought I²C, a two-wire bus still found on nearly every circuit board.
Not every idea landed; the interactive CD-i of 1991 is mostly remembered for a handful of infamous Zelda games. The chip division was spun off as NXP in 2006, and TVs, audio and lighting were sold or licensed away.