The Stanford linear Collider (SLC), accelerates sngle bunches of electrons and positrons to 47 GeV per beam and collides them with small beam sizes and at high currents. The beam emittances and intensities required for present operation have significantly extended traditional beam quality limits. The electron source produces over 1011e−in each of two bunches. The damping rings provide coupled invariant emittances of 1.8×10−5r‐m at 4.5×1010particles. The 50 GeV linac has successfully accelerated over 3×1010particles with design invariant emittances of 3×10−5r‐m. The collider arcs are now sufficiently decoupled and matched in betatron space, so that the final focus can be chromatically corrected, routinely producing spot sizes (&sgr;x, &sgr;y) of 2.5 &mgr;m at the interaction point. Spot sizes below 2 &mgr;m have been made during tests. Instrumentation and feedback systems are well advanced, providing continuous beam monitoring and considerable pulse‐by‐pulse control. The luminosity reliability is about 60%. Overviews of the recent accelerator physics achievements used to obtain these parameters and the present limiting phenomena are described for each accelerator subsystem.