Hardware

L2 cache is generally the memory between the RAM and the CPU, but you're talking about on-chip L2. Full speed L2 cache isn't - it's L1 cache - it runs at the same speed as the CPU, and is really, really small. L2 cache runs at half the speed of the CPU. The L1 stores information that the CPU has most recently processed, and the L2 stores what the CPU has second-most recently processed. Since they are somewhat standardized, the amount isn't really application dependent, unless you're talkingabout intensive applications (difference between using a Xeon in a server or a PII). Your RAM is going to affect performance more than anything, within reason (A PIII500 with 64MB will still outperform a Celeron 533 with 128MB). Most "experts" nowrecommend 128MB RAM as a minimum, compared with 64MB less than a year ago.

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