SNES Hardware Aging Reveals Subtle Speed Increases Over Decades

New research shows that aging ceramic resonators in the SNES Audio Processing Unit cause slight timing variations, impacting speedrun precision.

The Super Nintendo's Audio Processing Unit (APU) uses ceramic resonators, which appear to run slightly faster as they age, deviating from Nintendo's original specifications.
Recent tests show that the APU's Digital Signal Processor (DSP) now averages 32,076 Hz, compared to the original 32,000 Hz specification, with some units reaching 32,182 Hz.
This subtle increase in processing speed primarily impacts audio timing and could result in marginally faster loading times in certain games, though the effects are negligible for human players.
The TASBot community highlights the challenge this creates for tool-assisted speedruns, where frame-perfect synchronization with original hardware is essential but now harder to achieve due to timing inconsistencies.
Researchers attribute these changes to the natural degradation and sensitivity of ceramic resonators over time, with further studies ongoing to better understand and model these variations.