>But there's more to it as the L2 cache is often shared amongst cores in a multi-cpu system (where as the L1 is per-core)
As comatose_kid notes, this is highly dependent on CPU architecture. Intel's architectures from Nehalem to the current Ivy Bridge have smaller per-core L2 caches, and a shared L3 cache across all cores.
As comatose_kid notes, this is highly dependent on CPU architecture. Intel's architectures from Nehalem to the current Ivy Bridge have smaller per-core L2 caches, and a shared L3 cache across all cores.