CD-ROM developed by Japanese company Denon in 1982. It was an extension of Compact Disc Digital Audio, and adapted the format to hold any form of digital data, with a storage capacity of 553 MiB. CD-ROM was then introduced by Denon and Sony at a Japanese computer show in 1984. The "Yellow Book" is the technical standard that defines the format of CD-ROMs. One of a set of color-bound books that contain the technical specifications for all CD formats, the "Yellow Book", standardized by Sony and Philips in 1983, specifies a format for discs with a maximum capacity of 650 MiB.
Philips Computers had and has moderate success selling peripherals such as mice, keyboards and optical devices. Philips also sold and sells computer media such as diskettes and optical media (CD)s. Philips also developed the CD-i standard but it flopped. Another experimental product was the , based on Intel's 80186. It also flopped. Philips PCs were mostly equipped with motherboards designed by Philips Home Electronics in Montreal, Canada. In the late 1990s Philips Pentium PCs were sold based on generic components and cases. These were not proprietarily designed and produced. Philips had a subsidiary that sold the PCs under the Vendex brand: HeadStart.