Have you tried new sparc processors (T[12]000 line)? I'd be curious to see they compare against the top x86 processors.
In my opinion Solaris (x86 and Sparc) 10 is a major improvement over previous solaris releases by a long shot. Solaris x86 is rock solid and at minimum as fast as linux in my testing on the same hardware.
--Quanah
-- Quanah Gibson-Mount Principal Software Developer ITSS/Shared Services Stanford University GnuPG Public Key: http://www.stanford.edu/~quanah/pgp.html