was formally discussed in the 1984 National Reference Designs Study, which examined the technical and economic feasibility of a machine with the design energy of 20 TeV per proton.

Early in 1983, the High-Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) formed a subpanel on New Facilities for the US High-Energy Physics Program. Led by Stanford University physicist Stanley Wojcicki, and charged with making recommendations "for a forefront United