The biggest distinction between mainframes and supercomputers is the type of problems they tackle. Each of these types of large computers is specially designed and optimized to perform a particular type of task, and to do it better than any other computer. Not only do supercomputers and mainframes do their tasks more efficiently than other types of computers, they do things that no other computers can do!
Supercomputers are designed to work on types of problems whose primary constraint is calculation speed. Mainframes, on the other hand, deal with problems constrained by input/output and which demand reliability above all else. So while supercomputers are ideal for performing complex calculations on a large data set, mainframes are well suited for performing thousands upon thousands of concurrent transactions.
Supercomputers conduct large amounts of very fast and complex calculations on data stored in memory. These computers are built to purpose to run complex simulations or beating grand masters in chess. Mainframes process the large amounts of data that come into them from external sources, such as credit card transactions or payroll processing.
Supercomputers push the limits of computational speed, discovering what is possible for a computer to do. They are the explorers of the computing world. Conversely, mainframes are the workers. Rather than pushing up against the boundaries of what’s possible, they focus on reliable completion of large tasks and processing of transactions. They are the farmers of the big computing world, doing the hard labor that a complex industrial world needs done.
Mainframes:
• Run multiple programs concurrently
• Support many concurrent users
• Support new and legacy software (backwards compatibility)
• Run many different kinds of operating systems (z/OS, Linux, etc.)
• Uninterrupted operation
• Have performance measured in Millions of Instructions per Second (MIPS).
• Perform tasks on huge amounts of external data
• Are flexible enough to run many kinds of applications and tackle broad business tasks
Supercomputers:
• Focus processing power to execute a few programs or instructions as quickly as possible
• Focused on speed and accelerated performance
• Push boundaries of what hardware and software can accomplish
• Typically run a variant of Linux as their operating system
• Are typically run at maximum capability, putting the computer’s full processing resources toward solving a particular problem
• Are often a cluster or grid of smaller computers working together on whatever problem they are looking to solve
• Have performance measured in Floating Point Operations per Second (FLOPS)
• Execute complicated computations using large internal memory
• Have dedicated purposes for tasks like scientific research or engineering models

are very different from mainframe computers. A supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. Supercomputer can be based on any type of computer design (e.g., FPGA, vector processing,microprocessor, and GPGPU based computer).Supercomputers are used for scientific and engineering problems which are limited by processing speed and memory size, while mainframes are used for problems which are limited by input/output and reliability and for handling multiple business transactions concurrently. The differences are as follows:

• Mainframes are measured in integer operations per second or MIPS; whereas, Supercomputers are measured in floating point operations per second or FLOPS. Example of integer operation is moving data around in memory or adding integers. Example of floating point operation is the calculation of mathematical equations in real numbers. In terms of computational ability, Supercomputers are more powerful. Mainframes are built to be reliable for transaction processing as it is commonly understood in the business world: a commercial exchange of goods, services, or money. A typical transaction would include the updating to a database system for such things as inventory control (goods), airline reservations (services), or banking (money). A transaction could refer to a set of operations including disk read/writes, operating system calls, or some form of data transfer from one subsystem to another.
• Both types of systems offer parallel processing, although this has not always been the case. Parallel processing (i.e., multiple CPUs executing instructions simultaneously) was used in supercomputers (e.g., the Cray-1) for decades before this feature appeared in mainframes. Supercomputers typically expose parallel processing to the programmer in complex manners, while mainframes typically use it to run multiple tasks. One result of this difference is that adding processors to a mainframe often speeds up the entire workload transparently, with important exceptions of single batch jobs and CICS regions that don't run faster.
• Supercomputers are often built to run complex algorithm in wide application area such as in industry, academic, research, government or military (e.g., nuclear simulation and modeling, life science, medicine, telecommunication, weather forecasting), while mainframes run simple algorithm to handle variety of tasks (e.g. database query, warehousing, inventory, operating system). Supercomputer uses both off-design technology (e.g.: microprocessor based cluster computer) or advanced technology (e.g., vector processing, NUMA, liquid-cooling); whereas mainframes typically form part of a manufacturer's standard model lineup.
• Mainframes tend to have numerous ancillary service processors assisting their main central processors (for cryptographic support, I/O handling, monitoring, memory handling, etc.) so that the actual "processor count" is much higher than would otherwise be obvious. Supercomputer design tends not to include as many service processors since they don't appreciably add to raw number-crunching power.
• Mainframes are exceptionally adept at batch processing, such as billing, owing to their heritage, decades of increasing customer expectations for batch improvements. Supercomputers are very expensive and not cost-effective just to perform batch or transaction processing.

Introduced in 1960’s, Supercomputers are the computers with fastest processing power. They are the most advanced, sophisticated and expensive computers capable of processing trillions of instructions in a second. CDC6600 is considered as the first Supercomputer designed by Seymour Cray in 1964. Mainframes are large computers with great processing speed and storage capabilities. Introduced in 1950’2s, Mainframes are serving the critical back end data processing, banking, ERP, airline industry etc for the last 50 + years. Mainframe features
 Mainframe uses its processing power to execute multiple programs concurrently.
 For Mainframe, performance is measured in terms of MIPS (Millions of Instructions per Second).
 Mainframes undertake simple computational task that involves huge amount of external data.
 Mainframes execute broader tasks like critical back end data processing, data warehousing etc.
Supercomputer features
 A Supercomputer utilizes all its processing speed and power in executing a few programs as fast as possible.
 The performance of Supercomputer is measured in terms of Flop/s (Floating Point Operations per Second)
 Supercomputer executes complicated computations and utilizes large memory.
 Supercomputers are purpose built for tasks like simulation, modelling, research etc.
Where are supercomputers used?
Supercomputers are used for highly complex computing purposes like weather forecasting, calculations in fluid dynamics, nuclear research, animated graphics etc. Scientific research organizations use super computers for their highly calculation intensive tasks and bulk data processing, which would take years when processed in a normal computing platform.
HP’s latest Supercomputer with 172.60 TeraFlops is one of the current top supercomputers in India. Param Cluster supercomputer by CDAC comes next and IBM’s Blue Gene Solution comes third. In India, ISRO and IISC are working together now to develop world’s fastest supercomputer by 2017.
Apart from Mainframe computers and Supercomputers, IBM is doing research in a new stream called quantum computing which is faster than supercomputing. This computing uses computer whose the transistors are so small and the computer is working with atoms and molecules. A quantum computer would be capable of solving millions of calculations at once – and able to crack any computer code on Earth.
The recent advancements in high performance computing systems are expected to find feasible solutions for challenges related to energy management, fraud detection, antiterrorism, medical research etc. The big data problem, ie, where the large quantity of unstructured data that does not fit to the current formats of RDBMS is also expected to find a solution with future developments in the computing technology