This paper analyzes matched-filter acquistion performance of a direct-sequence spread-specturm multiple-access system in a Rayleigh fading channel. For an application of multiple access system, multiple access interference is considered in the performance analysis. A signal flow graph technique is used to derive mean acquisition time in terms of detection and false alarm probabilities. As aresult of performance analysis, it is shown that mean acquisition time increases as fading rate becomes faster andthe numbre of users increases, and it decreases as a matched-filter length becomes logner. The variation of parameter values hs much influence on acquisition performance as SNR/chip becomes smaller.