A tile server is a piece of software that can break down large images into smaller pieces, at a specified resolution. The resulting “pieces” are referred as “tiles”.

There's a tile server behind Google Maps, and most software for digital pathology relies on tile server technology as well. What makes PMA.start unique in this context is that the desktop-viewer can also serve as a tile server.

This means that PMA.start can be used to set up bespoke digital pathology and image analysis workflows, without the need for dedicated hardware or server-software.

You can learn more about how this process works on our blog, where we explain why tile servers are essential to tackle digital pathology data streaming bottlenecks.

Combine PMA.core and PMA.start

PMA.core is PMA.start's big brother. It supports more storage options, offers security options, and manages slide meta-data.

PMA.start and PMA.core can perfectly go together, and we have many satisfied customers that have built ecosystems that exploit the features of both.

Here are two use cases worth highlighting:

• A research group at a major hospital runs a central PMA.core server to validate new protocols with clinicians. Meanwhile, individual developers run PMA.start on their local (Linux) workstations, in combination with our ImageJ (Java) plugin, to develop new algorithms before they are pushed into the production environment
• A life science company allows PMA.start to be used on individual users' computers, so that they can quickly evaluate local slide content, typically delivered from outside collaborating groups. PMA.start allows for local viewing of slides, without the need to push these slides onto a central server first.