ACCESS: Accelerated Computation for Efficient Scientific Simulation

The ultimate goal of the DARPA Accelerated Computation for Efficient Scientific Simulation (ACCESS) is to demonstrate new, specialized benchtop technology that can solve large problems in complex physical systems on the hour timescale, compared to existing methods that require full cluster-scale supercomputing resources and take weeks to months. The core principle of the program is to leverage advances in optics, MEMS, additive manufacturing, and other emerging technologies to develop new non-traditional hybrid analog and digital computational means.

Many physical systems (e.g., plasmas and fluids) are governed by complex, non-linear phenomena that span many dimensions and timescales that we are unable to model. Performers in the ACCESS program are developing new computational architectures that combine digital and analog approaches to create intrinsically parallel physical processes. These approaches have the potential to accelerate our ability to carry out scalable, accurate simulations of these complex phenomena.

Successful ACCESS technologies may provide foundational technologies for specialized scientific computing systems beyond Moore's law, and transform how simulations are used for both design and discovery.