From the name you'd expect a simple sound card, but look deeper and there is more than meets the eye [1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundwave_(Transformers)

I was hoping it'd be a very cool soundcard, perhaps with unlimited General Midi channels.

If somebody ever buys up the Gravis Ultrasound name, you’ll know things are about to get wild.

10^5 orchestra hit polyphony.

Finally a realistic helicopter sound?

what is the reference here, out of curiosity

I am referencing one of the sound-effects contained in General MIDI. GM gives you many sounda of instruments like piano, harpsichord, guitar etc.

But it also contains these (much to the fun of everybody who ever played around with a GM keyboard):

  125 Telephone Ring
  126 Helicopter
  127 Applause
  128 Gunshot

I can clearly hear in my head myself repeatedly playing middle C and going through that sequence of patches.

Perhaps it is named after the Decepticon?

Not sure what their intention is of course, but nowadays there is A LOT of Cortexes in various sound gear. Plenty in things like Eurorack but also outboard equipment like the Eventide H9000 etc.

A common trend in audio systems is that the market cap is too small for economies of scale when it comes to commodity parts like processors. There are a handful of audio-specific chips that are common but processors are not one of them (any more).

I mean, "Coffee Lake" does not make much sense either.

Yeah. I imagine heaven with a lake full of fresh, delicious, and aromatic coffee... instead, there's just... a 14nm part (surprise!) on socket 1151.

I can't even remember how many plusses into 14nm we were when Coffee Lake dropped.