2006-06-28 00:30:26 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
Well they are both different types of computers for different purposes. Mainframes are slowly becomming a thing of the past. They are really a large central computer for which up to several thousand users can use at once, usually through a terminal connected directly to the system. Supercomputers are usually purpose built systems for fields that require extreamly large amounts of processing power. Such as rendering, real time modeling, stress testing designs. Chrysler has a supercomputer that is used to crash test car designs befor a prototype is even built, and is over 95% accurate. A good example of a mainframe being used can be seen at almost any department store, all the POS (registers) will be connect to one central system that will store all the data, and do a majority of the processing.
2006-06-28 00:38:32 · answer #1 · answered by mloeffler52 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A supercomputer is a computer that leads the world in terms of processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation,
Supercomputer operating systems, today most often variants of UNIX, are every bit as complex as those for smaller machines, if not more so. Their user interfaces tend to be less developed however, as the OS developers have limited programming resources to spend on non-essential parts of the OS (i.e., parts not directly contributing to the optimal utilization of the machine's hardware). This stems from the fact that because these computers, often priced at millions of dollars, are sold to a very small market, their R&D budgets are often limited. Interestingly this has been a continuing trend throughout the supercomputer industry, with former technology leaders such as Silicon Graphics taking a backseat to such companies as NVIDIA, who have been able to produce cheap, feature rich, high-performance, and innovative products due to the vast number of consumers driving their R&D.
mainframe is a normal computer
2006-06-28 00:42:05 · answer #2 · answered by Manan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A PC may include a supercomputer capable processor but reality is that the rest of the computer is not built to the standards.
Example the PPC (RISC) processor in a Apple MAC is actually the same supercomputer processor that is used in IBM RS/6000 Series computer, but the rest of the system components are not designed to carry 100+ users, running 24/7.
The easiest way to tell is money, if you see a PC with X processor for $1000 and a blade system same processor, even memory specs... $15000, there is a big difference in the design and other components.
Hope this helps.
2006-06-28 00:39:22 · answer #3 · answered by bgcolbe 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A supercomputer is just the biggest fastest machine available. When I started programming a supercomputer wasn't as fast and didn't have near the storage a PC does these days.
2006-06-28 00:41:35 · answer #4 · answered by Jim C 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Supercomputer is a wide-spread time period, commonly describing a clustering or computing gadget processors in order to finish "supercomputing" or complicated arithmetic. Mainframe commonly refers to a "dumb customer (or terminal)-server" ecosystem. they're no longer extremely a similar aspect, commonly.
2016-11-29 21:28:19 · answer #5 · answered by jaculina 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Super computer have the higher processing speed over mainframe and they are light in weight.
2006-06-28 00:35:47 · answer #6 · answered by cristy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
that can manage work faster n more in number at once.
2006-06-28 00:32:54 · answer #7 · answered by Dj Div 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋