Thanks for updating! I was a little confused since Heroku wasn’t around before the 2005 launch of the Xbox 360, but figured it was shorthand for something else.
Given the Xbox One SOC had a lot more security in mind, I could see how Microsoft was more cautious about these things. [1]
Just a lapse of memory and thanks for the benefit of the doubt. Another commenter mentioned turbolinks and I was like "whoooaaaa yes I used that and this timeline doesn't line up at all." This lead to a long internal discussion about when exactly did I play Bioshock and does that line up with my memories :-)
I guess I don't mind talking about it so much-- we made a sub $1 component that could compress certain specific waveforms and play them back-- the trick was that they were highly structured, so the compressed data basically just parameterized the silicon in what might be considered to be essentially an assembly instruction-- frequency, carrier wave, data to be sent, etc. The chip then would generate the signal and you could shove it out the electromagnetic radiator of choice with a little amplification a diode and couple of resistors. The problem with these signals was they required very precise timing-- they weren't super complex, but not something a general CPU could handle-- the variability in the timing was too high.
Now yes, you could use a general purpose DAC and an amp and generate the signals, but we sold you a turnkey thing-- with 10 lines of code you could be transmitting signals and the whole thing only use a few kb of ram.
It wasn't super high tech, but our value add was high. I'd say most of the major electronics companies used our chips at one time or another.
The description sounds like software defined radio. A CPU's frequency jitter doesn't matter at all for haptic feedback. Presumably it's not for WiFi, as there are plenty of cheap well-tested WiFi chipsets, so maybe for wireless controllers.
Edit: I was wrong about the frequency range, a sibling comment to yours mentions IR, not radio. Though, their mention of "radiator of choice" sounds like this same chip (or related chip) could be fed into an RF modulator/demodulator to build a software defined radio.
Yea, we were a consumer electronics company that mostly was subcontracted out to make components or complete hardware. I remember working on products for Denon, Crestron, Roku, Samsung, LG, Direct TV, Microsoft, HP, Nintendo, Sony and Audiovox (and their subsidiaries--Monster etc), and in Europe, One For All brand. It was honestly pretty exciting.
Regarding web services, like I said, we had a library of these waveforms and that was our cash cow-- you got the chips for only a few cents over cost. You got the API that operated them for free, but access to out database cost a fair bit.
Ah, so I'd guess you were producing some chip that generated IR signals to control various consumer electronics devices, and the library is a library of control commands of thousands of devices of different manufacturers.
Basically what you need to build a universal remote control, or a remote control for a specific device that includes controlling capabilities for other manufacturers' devices.
I'm pretty sure about that, especially since One For All is a brand dedicated to universal remotes.
If I had to take another guess, I would even nail it down on him having been employed by a company called Universal Electronics, which produced a series of universal remotes called "JP1 remotes" in hardware hacker circles (see for example http://www.hifi-remote.com/files/help/The%20WHAT%20and%20WHY...) and also acted as an OEM for a lot of other companies, so their tech could be found in various remotes of different brands.
[edit] I was slightly wrong. He was working for Zilog (which sold their universal remote business to Universal Electronics Inc. in 2009 however) and probably involved with a cool-named product called "Crimzon RC Blaster": https://www.zilog.com/docs/ir/PB0171.pdf
Given the Xbox One SOC had a lot more security in mind, I could see how Microsoft was more cautious about these things. [1]
[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U7VwtOrwceo&feature=emb_title