Yes, SN is Sherwood Newcastle. They developed a receiver a number of years ago now (the R-965) which was used to create a surround processor (the P-965, which was just the R-965 with no amps in it). Boston Acoustics briefly sold a P-965 with a different faceplate on it, but before that unit appeared Outlaw took the platform and made some significant changes to create the 990: added XLR outputs, added DVI switching, and re-wrote a lot of the software (new bass management software, new user interface).

At present, Sherwood has said they have no plans for a P-972 - just the R-972. It will have the Trinnov software that has been getting a fair bit of attention lately as well as the same Reon video chip used in the Toshiba XA2 and Onkyo's 905 receiver. Much like the R-965 before it, the R-972 has the potential to be a quite interesting platform.