why is python slow on Solaris?

[Tony McDonald]

Hi,

This is on an Enterprise 3500 - UltraSparc at 400MHz (ie a big box)

% uname -a
SunOS caduceus-temp 5.8 Generic_108528-07 sun4u sparc 
SUNW,Ultra-Enterprise
% file /usr/local/bin/python
/usr/local/bin/python:  ELF 32-bit MSB executable SPARC Version 1, 
dynamically linked, not stripped
% python
Python 2.1 (#3, Jul 18 2001, 22:05:54) 
[GCC 2.95.3 20010315 (release)] on sunos5
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from test import pystone
>>> pystone.main()
Pystone(1.1) time for 10000 passes = 2.38
This machine benchmarks at 4201.68 pystones/second

Whereas this is on a TiPB at 500 MHz (ie a little portable box)

% file /usr/local/bin/python
/usr/local/bin/python: Mach-O executable ppc
% python
Python 2.1 (#4, 05/17/01, 18:34:21) 
[GCC Apple DevKit-based CPP 6.0alpha] on darwin1
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from test import pystone
>>> pystone.main()
Pystone(1.1) time for 10000 passes = 1.55
This machine benchmarks at 6451.61 pystones/second
>>> 

Another test on a 700MHz PIII gave a pystones of around 10,000.

Can anyone tell me why this is so, and more importantly, what I can do 
to compile up python to run faster on Solaris?

cheers
Tone.