Blast Processing was a marketing term coined by Sega to advertise the fact that the main processor of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis was over two times faster than the one on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This is technically true, but the campaign misleadingly implied that the Genesis was more powerful. While the SNES CPU ran slower in clock cycles per second (3.6 MHz to Sega's 7.6), it put out more instructions per clock cycle, resulting in more instructions per second. (This is known as the "Megahertz Myth".) While the SNES was a stronger performer in general, developers were able to take advantage of the Genesis's higher clock speed in games such as Sonic the Hedgehog 2, in which Sonic moved faster than any Nintendo-powered character of the generation.

The U.S. ad campaign featured commercials with races between 2 vehicles, each with either the SNES or the Genesis strapped to it.

External links

• =RGA= - Features - Blast Processing
• 1UP.com's Essential 50 - #28 Sonic The Hedgehog