1. A system to simulate a lithographic design comprised of a plurality of polygons arranged in a predetermined configuration, the system comprising: a microprocessor subsystem to convert a circuit design database, which is representative of a integrated circuit pattern, to a pixel-based bitmap representation thereof, wherein the pixel-based bitmap includes pixel data; and an accelerator subsystem, coupled to the microprocessor subsystem, to calculate at least a portion of an aerial image of the lithographic design using the pixel-based bitmap representation of the lithographic design.