A dynamic cache partitioning apparatus and method is described, which may be used in a multi-core system having a plurality of cores. The apparatus includes at least one multi-core processor and at least one shared cache shared by a plurality of processing cores, the shared cache including a plurality of cache lines and being partitioned into a plurality of sub-caches including at least one private sub-cache for each single processing core and at least one public sub-cache being shared by all of the processing cores; means for detecting shared cache hit information for each respective processing core of the plurality of processing cores; and means for determining whether a cache line should be allocated to public sub-cache or to a private sub-cache associated with one of the plurality of processing cores.