In fact the UAD1 was really the first DSP-accelerated card for plugins that were easily accessible to any open-ended system that supported VST and DirectX, but the single processor that powered the card was taken from the video processor world. This type of processing provides the capability needed for plugins that are to the level of TDM plugins. With the UAD2 card you do get some amazing plugins with the processing to power them. There are debates about this of the UAD2 v/s TDM cards-I really think there are some unique advantages to both directions.
