Adapted by:
Juan Carlos López
Senior WriterAn engineer by training. A science and tech journalist by passion, vocation, and conviction. I've been writing professionally for over two decades, and I suspect I still have a long way to go. At Xataka, I write about many topics, but I mainly enjoy covering nuclear fusion, quantum physics, quantum computers, microprocessors, and TVs.
Alba Mora
WriterAn established tech journalist, I entered the world of consumer tech by chance in 2018. In my writing and translating career, I've also covered a diverse range of topics, including entertainment, travel, science, and the economy.
“[Super Nintendo] consoles seem to be getting faster as they age,” user TASBot recently shared on Bluesky. This message prompted many users of Nintendo’s iconic 16-bit console to test their own machines. They want to determine whether this phenomenon is consistent across devices or if it was just an isolated case with a faulty unit.
There’s a good reason why TASBot’s suspicions have resonated with the SNES user community. The programmer behind TASBot is Alan Cecil, who is well-liked in the speedrunning community. He’s also known for creating a bot designed to complete video games faster than any human player. As a result, many fans of the console quickly pulled theirs out of storage to see if they were indeed experiencing a speed increase.
The Super Nintendo’s Audio Chip and Its DSP Might Hold the Answer
Shortly after Cecil shared his experience in Bluesky, several owners confirmed that an integrated circuit is operating at a slightly higher clock frequency than it did when the Super Nintendo was originally released. While more users are needed to confirm whether their devices exhibit the same behavior, the sample size is large enough to lend credibility to Cecil’s initial suspicions.
In 2007, some Super Nintendo emulator developers noticed the resonator delivered a slightly higher frequency than expected.
The components responsible for the faster speeds seem to be the SPC700 audio chip and its 16-bit digital signal processor (DSP), known as S-DSP. The DSP is responsible for audio generation. Both chips were manufactured by Sony as part of a project led by Ken Kutaragi, Sony’s former CEO and the creator of PlayStation. Interestingly, the components operate alongside a ceramic resonator, which is theoretically tasked with generating a 32,000 Hz clock signal.
Cecil noted that some emulator developers had recognized, as early as 2007, that the resonator was functioning at a slightly higher frequency. This prompted them to adjust their programs to emulate these chips at 32,040 Hz to reproduce the sound of the games faithfully. However, 18 years have passed since those initial observations, and it appears that the Super Nintendo audio chip and its DSP have continued to speed up.
Many of the over 100 users who have responded to Cecil’s message confirm that the chips in their consoles are operating at a higher clock frequency than Nintendo specifies. The highest recorded frequency so far is 32,182 Hz. Murata, the Japanese company that manufactured the ceramic resonator, has verified that the frequency at which it oscillates varies under different physical conditions.
As a result, the data transfer rate between the CPU and the console’s audio chip is increasing. However, there’s currently no evidence to suggest that this unusual behavior will shorten the oscillator's lifespan. Unfortunately, capacitors are the components that are more prone to failure in the SNES and other consoles.
Image | Kamil Switalski
Related | Switch 2 Seems to Be More of the Same, and This Is Precisely What Nintendo Needs Right Now
View 0 comments