Patent ID: 7334160

Claim:
A distributed medical diagnostic imaging system, comprising: a system manager generating, based on a system configuration file, function commands for at least one function from a set of functions including at least one of system boot, system reset, system shutdown, power failure, and error handling, said system configuration file including information regarding a number of subsystems in said system and levels within each of said at least one function which each of said subsystems participate; a subsystem capable of performing at least one function from said set of functions, said subsystem including at least one task operator capable of executing at least one task associated with each function performed by said subsystem; and a subsystem manager receiving said function commands and in response thereto providing, based on a subsystem configuration file, task instructions to said task operator concerning said at least one function, said task operator supplying task results regarding completion or failure of each of said task instructions to said subsystem manager, said subsystem manager transmitting function results regarding completion or failure of each of said function commands to said system manager based on said task results, said subsystem configuration file including a number of task operators in said subsystem and levels of operation within each of said at least one function in which said subsystem and said task operators participate.