Machine cycles

The SNES processes instructions, but each instruction takes up a predetermined amount of time to execute. The time an instruction takes to execute is called "machine cycle" (or "cycle" in short).

Each instruction has its own cycle. This page has a full reference of how many cycles each instruction takes. Pay attention to the footnotes, as the amount of used cycles can differ depending on the context of the code. For example, a taken branch takes 1 cycle longer compared to a branch that's not taken.

The less cycles, the less slowdown the code suffers from. Slowdown is often noticeable in games with many sprites on the screen. To avoid slowdown, you need to write efficient code. Here is an example of inefficient vs. efficient code:

; Inefficient
LDA #$00           ; 2 cycles
STA $7E0000        ; 5 cycles
                   ; = 7 cycles
; Efficient
LDA #$00           ; 2 cycles
STA $00            ; 3 cycles
                   ; = 5 cycles

; Very efficient
STZ $00            ; 3 cycles
                   ; = 3 cycles

At first, we use a full notation to write the value $00 to address $7E0000. But then, in the next example, we shorten the address, saving 2 cycles. Finally, we figure that we can use STZ, as we store zero to an address anyway.

Having a low cycle count is especially important when executing code during an NMI, because there are limited machine cycles there. Exceeding that limit causes black scanlines to flicker on the top of the SNES display.