It has been reported that overseas versions of the Super Nintendo tend to run faster as they get older, which could affect time attacks.
The
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Super Nintendo Hardware Is Running Faster as It Ages
SNES consoles appear to run faster with age — APU frequency increased by up to 182 Hz after 35 years | Tom's Hardware
https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/nintendo/snes-consoles-appear-to-run-faster-with-age-apu-frequency-increased-by-up-to-182-hz-after-35-years
The SNES is equipped with a Sony Audio Processing Unit (APU) called the SPC700 , which has a digital signal processing (DSP) rate of 32,000Hz. The SPC700 contains a ceramic resonator that operates at 24.576MHz, and the way this ceramic resonator resonates when connected to electronic circuits determines the frequency of the APU, and therefore the amount of data it processes per second.
It has been shown that ceramic resonators are generally sensitive and can operate at higher frequencies than normal when exposed to heat or other external conditions. In fact, the Murata Manufacturing manual (PDF file) contains data showing how the vibration of a ceramic resonator changes when physical conditions such as temperature, vibration, and humidity are changed.
Some users developing SNES emulators have stated that since around 2007, SNES has been running at a higher frequency than the original 32,000 Hz, and
Cecil collected information from the SNES homebrew and emulation communities and analyzed the operating patterns of the SNES. As a result, it was found that 'the older the SPC700 is, the higher the frequency it operates at.' According to Cecil, the highest frequency at the time of writing was 32,182 Hz.
According to technology publication 404 Media, the SPC700's higher operating frequency means audio data can be sent to the processor at a faster rate, which means faster loading times, which in turn shortens the time it takes to complete a game.
However, the increase in clock speed only results in a very slight increase in game speed. 'Even if you compare the results of a time attack performed by a human using a normal SNES and a high-clock SNES, the difference would be less than one second,' Cecil said.
On the other hand, if you are building a bot that relies on precise timing, the shorter load times brought about by higher SPC frequencies can have a big impact on the results. In particular, the time attack bot ' TASBot ' managed by Cecil can adjust the execution of a single action in milliseconds, so changes in operating frequency have a big impact on the results.
'We don't yet know what effect the higher frequency of the SPC700 has on long-term time attacks, but we do know that it has some effect on the speed at which data can be transferred between the processor and the APU,' Cecil said.
Cecil also asks SNES owners for their SPC700 clock speed data on his website, stating, 'Even if the data is incomplete, it's still important data. Your information will help us improve TASbot's service.'
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