On a large mainframe, hundreds of people maybe logged on running programs at one time. The use of a single powerful computer by many users at once is called time -sharing. However, the computer actually switches rapidly from program to program, doing a bit of work on me and then hurrying on to work on another.
The fastest mainframes are called supercomputers. Supercomputers solve numerical problems as quickly as possible based on existing technology. They are used to model weather systems, to design cars and aircraft in many other ways. Likewise supercomputers are rare, because they are extremely expensive. Supercomputer users mostly scientists and engineers at large scientific installations sometimes run programs by means of long distance computer networks.
In recent years, mainframes known as parallel computers have provided great increases in speed over other computers. Most computers have a single processor. Where as a parallel computer has many processors that all operate at once. Each processor can work on a separate piece of a program. As a result, the program can be run much more quickly than on a computer with only one processor. The fastest supercomputers in the world are parallel computers. Like wise parallel computers may even serve as especially fast workstations.
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/mainframe-computers/
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