"So—this is a work that perfectly combines music and the game itself?"
Gerald didn't express much doubt about the whimsical concept of rhythm games.
If Lin Lixin says it can be done, then it definitely can be done.
Just follow along.
However, out of basic professional ethics as a hardware engineer, he quickly reviewed the potential problems in the plan.
However, there is indeed a huge problem that needs to be solved.
"What about the audio chip? Our current FM chip can't support your high demands."
GAMENOVA has always been a pioneer in the gaming industry when it comes to audio.
Ever since the Street Fighter era, they were among the first companies to use real human voices in games.
But that thing was completely different from what Lin Lixin wanted.
"Compressed PCM audio will be severely distorted. It's okay for background music in games, but if it's used as the main soundtrack—the sound quality will be unbearable."
In this regard, Yamaha is undoubtedly the industry leader.
To this day, the audio chips used in the NX are still Yamaha products.
The 8-channel FM source modulation synthesis is much more realistic than the old PSG waveform synthesis.
At least the timbre of those instruments can be simulated more realistically, rather than simply as a buzzing sound.
But that's not enough! Far from enough!
"Um----"
Lin Lixin did not deny this; in fact, he had been thinking about whether there was a solution to this problem during the Grammy ceremony.
If there is anyone in the audio field who has truly achieved a revolutionary breakthrough.
That name won't be Yamaha, but rather a consumer electronics manufacturer that's still tinkering with its own CD patents.
Sony.
The thought of Sony gave Lin Lixin a headache.
As one of the future "Big Three," Sony's technological foundation is simply incomparable to that of Nintendo, a company that started from humble beginnings.
Without Nintendo's numerous high-quality first-party exclusive titles, Nintendo would honestly be no match for the other two monster companies.
One is Microsoft, which successfully went public last year and whose stock price soared from $7 to tens of dollars.
One is Sony, a dominant player in consumer electronics and now undoubtedly the leader in the audio field.
The amount of capital and technological expertise these two possess is truly astounding.
"SPU----"
Lin Lixin rubbed his temples and muttered an unfamiliar word.
This is the audio processor used in Sony's PS1, which sold over 100 million units and dominated an entire era.
"What?"
"SPU, similar to the GPU and CPU we're promoting now, is a processor dedicated to audio."
"That's either the Yamaha YM2612 or the Sony SPC700?"
In this part, we finally returned to Gerald's familiar territory.
As the chief engineer in charge of the game console assembly, Gerald is certainly very familiar with audio chips.
Starting with the original NovaBo, GAMENOVA consoles have always included a dedicated audio chip.
Gerald must have handled at least dozens of chips.
He has studied a lot of products, whether they are from Yamaha, Sony, or other more specialized brands.
"Pretty much, but it needs to be more professional and high-end."
Lin Lixin recalled the specific parameters of Sony's SPU, "It had to be able to resolve CD-quality audio, which meant—um—a 24-channel 16-bit processor, 512KB of memory, and a MIDI converter."
"Ha?"
Gerald was taken aback for a moment, then seemed to understand something and breathed a sigh of relief. "You scared me! I thought you were talking about the audio chip configuration. If it's the whole arcade machine, then it's fine—"
"No, it's about the SPU configuration; all of these things are integrated onto a single SPU."
Gerald's eyes widened, but he swallowed the curse that was on the tip of his tongue.
This entire configuration is packed onto a single audio chip----
It's no exaggeration to say that if this thing could actually be made, the performance of just this one chip would be enough to crush all the current consoles on the market.
512KB of RAM + a 16-bit processor – this is a level of performance that only the NovaXeno can even dream of.
Lin Lixin actually planned to use it to make a chip specifically for audio processing!
"Are you serious?"
"That's right! It's an arcade machine anyway, so let's treat it as a technical verification and use whatever components we can find!"
Arcades are undoubtedly the most suitable platform for GAMENOVA to conduct high-end technology verification.
Technologies that are difficult to promote or popularize due to cost issues can be tested in the arcade market first.
"I'll have Sam arrange our meeting with Yamaha."
Lin Lixin stood up, intending to leave.
But Gerald suddenly called out to him.
"No, Yamaha isn't suitable—"
He rubbed his chin, went to the room where the chips were stored, and rummaged through it, quickly finding several Yamaha products.
All of them are FM synthesized audio sources.
He, as someone who directly liaises with various manufacturers and suppliers, has a clearer understanding of these things than Lin Lixin.
" Yamaha is indeed very knowledgeable about audio chips, but their main focus is on FM synthesis, while what we need is PCM sampling."
So you mean... Sony?
" Sony is indeed an ideal partner, but I have a better idea."
Gerald smiled and uttered a name that surprised Lin Lixin: " Motorola."
Motorola and Gamenova have a long-standing relationship; almost all of the 16-bit processors used in current devices are sourced from Motorola.
This ingrained way of thinking led Lin Lixin to completely exclude it from his options when he was considering the matter.
But after Gerald's reminder, Lin Lixin finally came to his senses.
"Oh my god, it really is."
Motorola's 16-bit processor was so mainstream that it overshadowed its status as a mobile communications manufacturer.
In the field of communications, Motorola's main battlegrounds include walkie-talkies, mobile phones, landline phones, cash registers, and many other areas.
The M68000 16-bit processor seems somewhat dispensable in these areas.
Compared to Yamaha and Sony, Motorola has an advantage that neither of them can match.
It's a legitimate American company.
At this tense juncture in the US-China semiconductor industry, choosing a local America partner would undoubtedly provide more advantages in terms of pricing and policy support, and also avoid some unnecessary troubles.
More importantly, the ICASSP International Conference on Acoustic Speech Signal Processing will be held in just over two months.
As a leading manufacturer in this field, Motorola will naturally participate.
To release a top-of-the-line, ultra-premium product at this time----
This is a price that's hard to refuse.
In addition, in order to put this product into production, Motorola would definitely need to find a suitable wafer fab.
Micron, a manufacturer within Gamenova itself, is clearly the most suitable partner.
In this back-and-forth, Lin Lixin was essentially transferring money from his own pocket to his own, using his own production lines to make his own chips and earning extra income.
A phone call connected Chicago and San Francisco.
Faced with the design drawings personally drawn by Lin Lixin, a top-tier architecture that instilled fear in Motorola's engineers, the two sides quickly reached an agreement.
Experts in high-performance digital audio and a video game company are about to bring a small auditory shock to the world.