Difference between turbo charging and super charging

The differences between turbo and supercharging depend on the type of supercharger one compares it to.

If you were to compare a turbocharger to a centrifugal supercharger the differences would be small, after all a centrifugal supercharger is simply the compressor half of a turbocharger that is belt driven from the crank. The issue with these types of compressors is that they produce boost in a non-linear fashion, further compounding the issue that superchargers have with not being able to produce full boost until redline. This is because the supercharger is crank driven, so when the supercharger produces maximum boost must be directly synchronized with the engines redline, because if the supercharger were to produce full boost at half of the engines possible RPM, then in the other half of the engines RPM range the supercharger would choke and actually produce less CFM than before. When compared to a turbo, the turbo can build to its maximum potential very quickly in the RPM range and then be controlled by the wastegate to stay there.