Waves is a particular semi-proprietary audio system and architecture designed around their software offerings which include a large number of plugins. External vendors can also build plugins that are certified to run on the Waves architecture. There are also a number of vendors whose software does run on the Waves architecture but not certified as compatible by Waves.
With respect to the Waves architecture, it is specifically designed to be able to offload certain tasks to network devices dedicated to these subtasks, all of which are further divided/designed to work with what the producer is using their software/hardware to do - namely live performance or studio work, as efficiently and fast as possible.
Waves does have a PDF available that tells the user how to set up and use the Waves gear and software, which I have included below for those who are interested.
WRT to processing power, like Celerons vs Core i9 Extremes or Xeons or various Apple monsters, all it takes is sufficient computational power to run a specific optimized architecture and software. So, yes, a (modern) Celeron can be overkill depending on what it is controlling. It’s one of the reasons for the statement that you need to understand what it is you need before designing the hardware and software to do it.
It is also worth mentioning that there is another topic in this forum from a User that runs a full Waves setup and from the description of what he is doing and the results it is absolutely a top of the line solution. The link to that discussion is below:
After my last build, I can vouch for the fact I spent more money on my build than I would have spent buying Waves hardware to do the same (actually more) thing as my rig - at least with respect to audio processing.
soundgrid-studio-manual.pdf (12.1 MB)
Check out the diagrams of the architecture if you don’t have the time or inclination to read through the documentation.
And in closing, for those of you contemplating buying new hardware and software, it is worth the time to ask Waves to give you a quote for what you’d like to do. The quote is free and their recommendations can be quite enlightening no matter what choice you make. From past experience, they are nice people and helpful.