The Multimedia Manager was the core of the new AlpineF#1Status system, and this endeavor was necessary to realize the absolute best sound in the car. At the same time, we needed to not only provide compatibility with DVD-Audio, but also all other media – including DVD, CD and CD-R – as well as entertainment formats such as Dolby Digital EX and dts-ES, and the newest digital audio formats such as MP3. The highest level in both sound quality and functionality were required. Of course this means that the great amount of data and the high speed necessary for processing it become so great that is really incomparable to previous models. This was an unprecedentedly high hurdle to overcome.

If we aim at achieving the supreme sound quality and functionality, we can only use the most strictly chosen and most advanced parts – such as floating-point DSPs made by Texas Instruments and 192kHz/24bit K-grade DACs from Burr-Brown. Why this is a such a hard thing to achieve is because we were not working to improve the previous model but had to create a new generation system. As a result, the new PXI-H990 Multimedia Manager features the newest and best digital processing technology, all concentrated in a much condensed and compacted form compared to the previous model.

It’s not enough just investing in the latest, most expensive, most advanced devices to achieve the highest functionality. Due to the vast amounts of data processing, including executing the functions and unifying and controlling various calculations, working out the program for that control also was extremely important. To give an example, a full twenty people took part in just the DSP and microprocessor of the core portion which is related to system control. And even as the program development proceeded, a variety of unexpected problems cropped up.

Problems were not limited to just the Multimedia Manager either, but came up in regards to the entire system development. For example, when we checked the system of the components that were to make up the new AlpineF#1Status for the first time, we couldn’t even hear the sounds of DVD-Audio after connecting the DVD head unit DVI-9990. An astounding amount of system debugging and troubleshooting among all the components started off from this point.