Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide a mechanism for inserting performance markers into programs to obtain and provide data regarding the run-time benchmark timing of the programs. The computing system has an init module for determining if the benchmark timing data is to be collected during the operation of the application program, a performance marker module for obtaining and storing the benchmark timing data for later retrieval, and an uninit module for formatting and storing the obtained benchmark timing data into memory that permits retrieval after the termination of the application program. The init module is executed before any benchmark timing data is collected. The performance marker module is executed each time benchmark timing data is to be collected. The uninit module is executed after all benchmark timing data desired has been collected.