Fault-tolerant PACS server design

A single point of hardware failure in PACS is at the PACS controller, or the main archive server. When it occurs, it renders the entire PACS inoperable and crippled until the problem is diagnosed and resolved. Many current PACS do not have a fault-tolerant design or adequate back-up system for the main archive server due to several issues including cost. Several large scale PACs utilize the Tandem or cluster design but are very costly and have not been critically tested for their degree of fault tolerance. This paper describes a novel, portable, and scalable fault-tolerant PACS controller design that is affordable for most PACS implementations.