I saw this on the cover of a book about trains that was at least similar to a
magazine:

>
> [N700系](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E5%B9%B9%E7%B7%9AN700%E7%B3%BB%E9%9B%BB%E8%BB%8A)とはどこが違う？
>
> N700Aに搭載された性能

This is a little confusing:

  1. とは is used to define things. It is often used either in a question asking for a definition or a dictionary entry that actually gives a definition. どこが違う？ does not sound like a question asking for a definition.

  2. As for the second sentence, it almost looks like "The ability by which it was loaded by N700A." That is obviously not the meaning of the sentence.

Maybe this is something vaguely in the ballpark of the meaning of that phrase?

> What's new and different in the N700 series [of train models]?
>
> The N700A, which is superior in terms of capacity

What is the translation, and in particular, what am I missing here?
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grammar translation particles
How do とは and に/された work in 「N700系とはどこが違う？N700Aに搭載された性能」
Here, とは is just pointing out that we're defining a characteristic of the N700
group. (The と is the quotative particle, but I don't think that really helps
in parsing this.) どこが違う？ is not asking for a definition _per se_ , but for
defining a characteristic.

Your translation is pretty close. Literally, I'd translate it as something
like:

> Where is the difference from the N700 line [of trains]?  
>  The performance (or efficiency) that was equipped by the N700A.

Or, more naturally:

> What's different from the N700 train models?  
>  The N700A's performance levels.
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1. Don't treat 「とは」 as a single unit.

「〜と違う」 means "different from". This 「と」 is the one normally glossed as "with",
although I can't think of a way to use that gloss here.

When 「〜と違う」 is used in the outermost layer of the sentence, it is normally
becomes 「〜とは違う」. While I can't give a technical explanation of why this is the
case, I'd say the hand-wavey one is that 「違う」 is a "semantically negative"
predicate which is normally _not_ true of most things, so it is natural to use
「は」 for the same reason it is natural to use 「は」 with syntactically negative
predicates.

  2. 「〜に搭載する」 approximately means "to build into" or "to load onto". When you change it to the passive 「〜に搭載される」 you get "to be built into" or "to be loaded onto". Literally, 「N700Aに搭載された性能」 ⇒ "The capabilities built into the N700A."

> What's different from the N700 model?
>
> The N700A's built-in capabilities.
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answer