Why is SPARC better than x86?

[Loki3]

I was browsing the retrobox.com website and I was wondering why a 333Mhz Sun Ultrasparc computer costed around $150 dollars when you could get a much faster x86 machine for the same price. What avantages does sparc have over x86? Is it 64bit?

Thanks

[ph34r]

Completely different architecture and way of working... and you can't really compare the CPU speed in mhz due to the differences (like a Mac vs. intel/amd cpu).

[je_fro]

Ultras are 64-bit.
They are slow, but extremely modular and reliable. I don't have any Ultras personally, but I wouldn't mind one. I have several SMP sparcstations that are _really_ old, but they are reliable, and different.

<showoff>
http://je-fro.port5.com/RRweb/files/dsc01952.jpg
http://je-fro.port5.com/RRweb/files/dsc01962.jpg
http://je-fro.port5.com/RRweb/files/dsc01963.jpg

I picked those sparcstations up for $10 each and the monitor was a whopping $15. Two ss20's are dual processor and one is a quad.
They are different, and fun to play with...they run gentoo and openbsd very nicely.
</showoff>

<added by mdwatts>

I bolded the 'showoff' tags as they should be for posting those dual/quad sparcs. ;)