It is NOT a terminal-mainframe relationship. Soundwave hosts the electromagnetic neural web-link, but they are NOT a mainframe, although they effectively contain the mainframe which collectively nets their individual consciousness and those of all their cassettes into the linked awareness (not to be confused with a single collective awareness like Reflector) which can vaguely be considered the Soundwave Collective. The cassettes themselves are, of course, not terminals, as they are full individuals with personality beyond programming (even Ravage, Buzzsaw, and Laserbeak) and would continue to exist and live (though without the accustomed general awareness of each other) without Soundwave.
However, since there exists to my knowledge no term to accurately and succinctly describe this relationship, it's easier to just refer loosely to Soundwave as the mainframe of the Soundwave Collective and the cassettes as, well, cassettes. It's a reasonable stretch of definition. Technically there is also a Blaster Collective, but although I am watching every instance of Blaster and his cassettes with intense riveted interest, I haven't observed enough in enough detail yet to consider similarities vs differences and person vs construction. It seems so far - and I say this with tentative confidence - that in this as with most things, Soundwave and Blaster are far more alike than they are different.
