Blast processing
From Sega Retro
Blast Processing was a marketing term coined by Sega to advertise the claim that the main processor of the Sega Mega Drive was over two times faster than the one in its rival product, the SNES. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the posterboy for this campaign, being faster than any other platform game at the time. The ad campaign featured commercials with races between two vehicles, with the SNES strapped to one and the Mega Drive strapped to the other.
<mediaplayer>File:Blast Processing Commercial.flv</mediaplayer>
In truth, the claim is not entirely accurate: while the SNES CPU ran slower in clock cycles per second, it would put out more instructions per clock cycle. The Mega Drive would have to freeze background and enemy animations while the game is moving at high speeds.
The idea of simply comparing CPU clock rates to determine performance, regardless of other characteristics, is commonly known as the "megahertz myth".
gamesTM - Gaming News '92 "Hogging the World Stage"
