Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave

Is the 3rd Wave a kind of PPG wave 3? YES! And even more!

To me it does not only by its look. It also sounds very close to the original vintage PPGs if you use the old PPG wavetables. But it also got a way more high-fidelity sound with the new 96 kHz wavetables. And all the additional modulation possibilities, 24 voices and 4 time multitimbral are great new features. And the built in real time sequencer is way more intuitive to use than the old PPG one. I bet even advanced synth players with no PPG wave experience (and many PPG wave users too) are able to get a PPG wave sequencer to record and play back the most simple line, if you don't got a manual in your hands.

To open the 3rd Wave you just need to undo two Hex screw with an Allan Key on each side panel (the one nearer to the keybed). And you are ready to open the hood. The panel metal is about 3 mm (about 0.12″) thick. Built like a tank.
The huge single PCB on the bottom (there are three others for the panel) is about 49 cm x 19 cm (about 19″ x 7 1/2″). There are 4 SHARC ADSP-SC584 chips. One serving as the main brain and to control the UI, and one for 8 voices each. There are 3 sections for 8 voices each seen on the PCB. The filter is an anlog SSI2140 chip. It is a clone of the vintage SSM 2040 chip designed by Dave Rossum. The original PPG waves 2.2 and 2.3 got the SSM 2044 filter chip. The early Prophet-5 (Rev.1 and 2) and the RSF Kobol Expander used this SSM 2040 filter too.