a workstation controller performance monitor for locating performance bottlenecks is disclosed . the user notifies the host that he wants to start performance measurements . the host notifies each of the workstation controllers to begin collecting data that can be used to determine processor performance and communications line performance for each workstation controller . this data is collected in counters that reside in the storage of each of the workstation controllers . in the preferred embodiment , this data is periodically sent to a data base contained in the storage of the host . when the user specified length of time to collect data has expired , the host informs each of the connected workstation controllers to stop taking measurements . the data contained in the counters is sent to the database in the host and the host calculates processor utilization and communications line utilization for each of the connected workstation controllers . if the processor utilization falls below a first threshold , the performance of that processor is acceptable . if the processor utilization is greater than a second threshold , the performance of that processor is not acceptable . if the processor utilization is in between the first and second thresholds , the processor performance is considered marginal and a more complicated calculation of workload evenness of the processor is performed . if the workload is considered to be uneven , the performance of that processor is considered to be unacceptable .