Apple Lisa
 | |
| Apple Lisa with ProFile hard drive | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Apple Computer, Inc. (Project led by John Couch; GUI inspired by Xerox PARC) |
| Manufacturer | Apple Computer, Inc. |
| Type | Personal/business computer |
| Released | January 19, 1983 |
| Discontinued | August 1, 1986 |
| Intro price | US$9,995 (base model) |
| CPU | Motorola 68000 @ 5 MHz |
| Memory | 512 KB or 1 MB on two memory boards (Apple maximum 1 MB; 2 MB with third-party boards) |
| Storage | 2 × 5.25-inch FileWare ("Twiggy") drives, 871 KB formatted each; optional ProFile hard drive, 4.98 MB formatted |
| Display | 12-inch monochrome CRT, 720 × 364, 60 Hz refresh |
| Sound | Internal piezo speaker |
| Graphics | Bit-mapped raster display; 20 MHz dot rate, 22,900 Hz line rate |
| FPU / coprocessor | None |
| Input | Keyboard, one-button mouse, optional graphics tablet |
| Connectivity | 2 × RS-232-C serial (DB-25); 1 × parallel (DB-25) — the ProFile connects here |
| Expansion | 3 × internal expansion slots |
| Dimensions | 350 mm H × 475 mm W × 388 mm D (13.8 × 18.7 × 15.2 in) |
| Weight | 22 kg (48 lb) |
| OS / Firmware | Lisa OS 1.0–3.1; Microsoft Xenix available |
| Predecessor | Apple III |
| Successor | Apple Lisa 2 |
| Codename | “Lisa” (often backronymed “Local Integrated Software Architecture”) |
| Model no. | A6S0200 |
The Apple Lisa was Apple Computer’s first personal computer to offer a complete graphical user interface (GUI) and mouse-driven interaction, targeted at business users. It pioneered features such as protected memory, cooperative multitasking, and document-centric applications. Despite its innovations, its high cost and performance limitations led to modest sales and an eventual market withdrawal.
History
Origins and Vision
The Apple Lisa project began in 1978 as Apple’s first serious effort to create a user-friendly, office-oriented personal computer, driven by CEO Steve Jobs’s vision of a graphical user interface for the mass market. A ten-person team was first housed at 20863 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino—nicknamed the “Good Earth building”—under initial leader Ken Rothmuller, who was soon replaced by John Couch as project manager.
Inspiration from Xerox PARC
In 1979, key Lisa engineers including Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC’s Palo Alto Research Center and witnessed the Alto workstation’s pioneering WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) interface. Impressed by the Alto’s mouse-driven desktop metaphor, Apple negotiated an exchange of stock to secure PARC demonstrations, laying the foundational GUI concepts that would define Lisa’s software and user experience.
Hardware Development and Challenges
Twiggy Floppies and Component Delays
Apple originally equipped Lisa with dual “Twiggy” 5.25″ floppy drives (codename FileWare), which proved highly unreliable in production, leading to frequent data errors and manufacturing delays. Later models replaced these with more dependable 3.5″ Sony drives.
Escalating Costs and Complexity
Rapidly rising component costs—especially of the Motorola 68000 CPU—combined with a sophisticated hardware design that included protected memory emulation and a 12″ 720×364-pixel monochrome display, pushed Lisa’s price to US\$9,995 at launch (equivalent to over US\$30,000 in 2024), limiting its appeal to large enterprises.
Launch and Early Reception
Lisa was announced on 19 January 1983 and began shipping that June. Reviewers praised its innovative GUI and its bundled Office suite, but criticised the steep learning curve, the sluggish performance of the machine under its own operating system and the shortage of third-party software.
Market Pressures and Macintosh Competition
In January 1984, Apple released the Macintosh at US\$2,495—roughly one-quarter of Lisa’s price—featuring a streamlined GUI and faster 3.5″ floppy drive. The Macintosh quickly captured both developer interest and retail mindshare, cannibalizing Lisa sales and contributing to Lisa’s commercial failure despite its advanced hardware and software features.
Hardware
Published specification
Apple's own hardware specification for the Lisa, from Appendix 5 of the Lisa Owner's Guide:[1]
| Item | Apple's figure |
|---|---|
| Cabinet | 350 mm high, 475 mm wide, 388 mm deep (13.8 × 18.7 × 15.2 in); 22 kg (48 lb) |
| Mains, US | 90–130 V AC, 48–68 Hz |
| Mains, Europe/Asia | 180–260 V AC, 48–68 Hz |
| Operating temperature | 5–40 °C (40–104 °F) |
| Operating humidity | 10–80%, non-condensing |
| Internal memory sizes | ½ MB or 1 MB |
| Built-in drives | 871 KB formatted each |
| ProFile | 4.98 MB formatted |
| Screen | 30 cm (12 in) diagonal, 150 × 220 mm (6 × 8.5 in) active |
| Resolution | 364 lines × 720 dots per line |
| Screen refresh rate | 60 Hz |
| Horizontal line rate | 22,900 Hz |
| Dot rate | 20 MHz |
Two figures on an earlier revision of this page are not Apple's: a 67 Hz refresh rate (Apple says 60 Hz) and a 25 MHz crystal (Apple gives a 20 MHz dot rate). A "light pen interface" was also claimed; nothing in Apple's specification or service literature describes one, and it has been removed.
Memory
The Lisa takes two identical memory boards (Apple part 661-93105) in the card cage. A Lisa 2 with one board fitted has 512 KB; with both fitted it has 1 MB, which is Apple's maximum. Apple notes in the same paragraph that "two megabytes of memory are possible if third party memory boards are installed".[2]
Two memory boards are required to run the diagnostic diskette and to run any version of the Lisa Workshop.[2] A machine that fails diagnostics with only one board fitted is not necessarily faulty.
Storage
The Lisa 1 shipped with two 5.25-inch FileWare drives — universally called Twiggy — formatted at 871 KB each.[1] They proved unreliable in service and Apple replaced them in the Lisa 2 with a single-sided Sony 3.5-inch mechanism.
The external ProFile hard drive is 4.98 MB formatted[1] and connects to the Lisa's built-in parallel port, not to a serial port or to any AppleBus connector: Apple's installation procedure is "connect the ribbon cable to the ProFile and to the built-in parallel port at the back of the Lisa".[2] The Lisa 2/10 instead carries an internal 10 MB Widget drive, for which the I/O board and motherboard must both be the 2/10 types.[2]
A Lisa 2 with no hard disk cannot run the Lisa Office System at all — Apple states that the Office System must be loaded onto a hard disk. It can run MacWorks from the microdisk drive, in which case it "behaves like a Macintosh without an external disk drive".[2]
Input, output and expansion
The Lisa 1 and Lisa 2 motherboard carries three DB-25 connectors: two serial and one parallel. The Macintosh XL motherboard has no parallel connector and only two DB-25 connectors, both serial — which is why a Macintosh XL cannot drive a ProFile from the built-in port.[2]
There are three internal expansion slots in the card cage. Apple's own set-up procedure fits the Parallel Interface Card, needed for the Dot Matrix Printer, in expansion slot 2 at the right rear.[2]
The battery pack
This is the single most destructive fault on a surviving Lisa, and the older revisions of these pages never mentioned it.
The Lisa I/O board carries four NiCd AA cells in a holder on its lower right-hand side, with an on/off switch beside them; Apple's set-up procedure has the technician confirm that switch is set to ON.[2] Forty years on, almost all of these packs have leaked, and the electrolyte eats traces on the I/O board.
Whether a board has batteries at all is a useful identifier:[2]
- Lisa 2 and Lisa 2/5 I/O board (620-0117-X, 661-93198) — has batteries; no resistor at R-47
- Macintosh XL (Lisa 2/10) I/O board (661-9??, 620-X14x-X) — no batteries; resistor is present at R-47
- Modified Macintosh XL and Modified Lisa 2 (screen modification kit fitted) — has batteries
Remove the cells before doing anything else to a stored machine. See Apple Lisa Capacitor Replacement Guide for the cleaning and trace-repair method and for the power supply and video board capacitor lists.
Identifying a board set
Apple's System Boards Compatibility Table identifies each module by part number and by ROM revision. The most useful rows:[2]
| Module | Apple part number | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Motherboard, Lisa 2 | 661-93106 (620-0108-X) | Three DB-25 connectors: two serial, one parallel |
| Motherboard, Macintosh XL | 661-93110 (620-X141) | No parallel connector; two DB-25, both serial |
| I/O board, Lisa 2/5 | 661-93198 (620-0117-X) | Has batteries; no R-47; disk controller ROM 341-0290 rev. B |
| I/O board, Macintosh XL | (620-X14x-X) | No batteries; R-47 fitted; disk controller ROM 341-0281 rev. D |
| CPU board | 661-93103 (620-0119-X) | Boot ROMs 341-0175 and 341-0176, rev. H |
| CPU board, modified | 661-0298 or 661-93103 | Boot ROMs 341-0347 and 341-0346, rev. 3A |
| Memory boards (two identical) | 661-93105 (620-01XX-X) | Same for every variant |
| Video board | 661-93107 (620-0121-X) | Same for every variant |
Two power supplies were fitted: a 5 A supply rated at 1.2 A AC and a 10 A supply rated at 1.8 A AC. Which one is present is part of Apple's configuration table for telling the variants apart.[2]
Diagnostics
Reading the ROM codes at startup
About 30 seconds after power-on, as the CRT warms, the Lisa draws four icons — CPU, I/O, memory and expansion cards — and highlights each in turn as the boot ROM tests it. If a card fails, its icon is drawn with an X through it and testing stops: reseat the board, power up again, and swap it out if the same icon fails.[2]
Once the icons have been tested, the Boot ROM and I/O ROM code numbers appear in the upper right corner of the screen for a few seconds. Apple's correct values:[2]
| System | Boot ROM (unmodified) | I/O ROM (unmodified) | Boot ROM (modified) | I/O ROM (modified) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisa 2 and 2/5 | H | A8 | 3A | A8 |
| Macintosh XL (Lisa 2/10) | H | 88 | 3A | 88 |
"Modified" means the Macintosh XL Screen Modification Kit is fitted. If the codes you read do not match this table, Apple's instruction is to install the correct ROM. Note also that the diagnostic diskette reports an I/O error on CPU boards whose boot ROM is earlier than rev. F.[2]
Error numbers
The Lisa's diagnostics report numeric error codes. Apple's own table, abbreviated to the hardware-level entries:[2]
| Number | Problem | Apple's replacement order |
|---|---|---|
| 22, 23, 25, 38 | Cannot clamp / read / unclamp diskette; no boot file | See the "bad diskette icon" start-up messages |
| 39 | Disk controller timeout | I/O board, CPU board, motherboard |
| 40 | MMU | CPU board |
| 41 | CPU selection logic | CPU board |
| 42 | Video circuitry | CPU board |
| 43 | Parity circuitry | CPU board, memory board 1, memory board 2, motherboard |
| 44 | NMI error | CPU board, I/O board, motherboard |
| 45 | Bus error | I/O board, CPU board, motherboard |
| 46 | Address error | CPU board, memory board 1, memory board 2 |
| 47 | Exception | CPU board, motherboard |
| 48 | Illegal instruction | CPU board, memory board 1, memory board 2 |
| 49 | 1010 or 1111 trap | CPU board, memory board 1, memory board 2 |
| 50 | COPS VIA | I/O board, CPU board, motherboard |
| 51 | Parallel port VIA | I/O board, CPU board, motherboard |
| 52 | I/O board COPS | I/O board |
| 53 | Keyboard COPS | Keyboard, I/O board, keyboard cable, motherboard |
| 54 | Clock error | I/O board |
| 55, 56 | RS-232 port A, port B | I/O board |
| 57 | Disk controller | I/O board, disk drive, disk drive cables, CPU board, motherboard |
| 58 | I/O board access | I/O board, CPU board, motherboard |
| 59 | I/O board COPS code | I/O board |
| 60 | I/O or keyboard error | Keyboard, I/O board, keyboard cable, motherboard |
| 70, 71 | Memory data, memory parity | Replace the memory board identified by the icon shown |
| 75 | Boot failure | See the start-up error messages for the icon shown |
| 80–85 | ProFile errors | See the "bad ProFile icon" start-up messages |
| 90–93 | Expansion card error | See the "bad expansion card icon" start-up messages |
Codes 43, 46, 48 and 49 all point at the CPU board or a memory board, which is why Apple's order matters: swap the CPU board first, then memory board 1, then memory board 2.
Operating System and Software
Lisa OS
Lisa OS 1.0 debuted with the hardware. Its WYSIWYG GUI featured overlapping windows, pull-down menus, drag-and-drop icons and document-centric workflows — you opened a copy of a stationery pad rather than launching an application. The system provided protected memory per process and multitasking, both unusual on a desk in 1983. The final revision, Lisa OS 3.1, shipped with the Lisa 2/10.
The Lisa Office System must be installed on a hard disk — Apple states that it cannot run on a Lisa 2 with no ProFile or internal drive.[2]
Microsoft Xenix on Lisa
An optional Microsoft Xenix port transformed Lisa into a UNIX-like multi-user system when paired with the RAM expansion and ProFile HDD. Xenix on Lisa supported multiple terminal sessions over serial ports, a Bourne shell, standard UNIX utilities, and software development tools—demonstrating the Lisa’s versatility beyond its GUI orientation.
Software Suite
Apple bundled seven integrated programs under the LisaOffice umbrella. Apple's service documentation refers to "the six basic Lisa tools" supplied on tool master diskettes alongside the two Office System diskettes.[2] Tool master diskettes are copy-protected per machine: once copied by one Lisa they can never be copied onto another, and copies made from them cannot be used on another machine.[2]
- LisaWrite – A full-featured word processor with WYSIWYG layout and proportional fonts.
- LisaCalc – Spreadsheet with cell-based formula editing and charting.
- LisaDraw – Vector-based drawing and illustration.
- LisaGraph – Data visualization and chart creation.
- LisaProject – Project management with Gantt chart scheduling.
- LisaList – Simple database and report generator.
- LisaTerminal – terminal emulator for connecting to host systems over the serial ports.
Variants & Evolution
Lisa 2 (1984)
- Replaced Twiggy with a Sony 3.5″ 400 KB floppy drive.
- Models:
Lisa 2/5 — One 3.5″ drive + ProFile 5 MB. Lisa 2/10 — Two 3.5″ drives + internal Widget 10 MB HDD.
Macintosh XL (1985)
- Rebranded Lisa 2/10.
- Shipped with MacWorks XL ROM emulator to run Macintosh System Software.
- Shipped with a screen modification kit and a different boot ROM revision; see Identifying a board set below.
Maintenance and Troubleshooting
Aging Lisa units commonly require:
- The four NiCd cells on the I/O board. Deal with these first — see The battery pack above. A leaked pack destroys traces and is the commonest reason a surviving Lisa is beyond economic repair.
- RIFA safety capacitors in the power supply. C1 and C7, both 0.33 µF X-class parts, crack and fail with smoke. Replace with modern X2 film capacitors before the first power-on of a stored machine.
- Electrolytic capacitors in the power supply and on the video board. Values are on Apple Lisa Capacitor Replacement Guide.
- Floppy drive service. Twiggy drives need cleaning and fresh lubrication; many owners retrofit a Sony 3.5-inch mechanism, which is what Apple itself did for the Lisa 2.
- Keyboard and mouse. Contact oxidation in the detachable keyboard cable causes intermittent input; the keyboard uses capacitive foam-and-foil pads that crumble.
For step-by-step procedures, see the dedicated Apple Lisa Maintenance Guide, Apple Lisa Troubleshooting Guide and Apple Lisa Capacitor Replacement Guide pages.
Legacy and Impact
Although commercially unsuccessful, the Lisa laid the foundational architecture for the Macintosh GUI, protected memory concepts, and integrated office productivity software. Many engineers and designers from the Lisa team transitioned to Macintosh development, carrying forward lessons in human–computer interaction and system design. Today, the Lisa is revered by historians and collectors as a pivotal moment in the evolution of personal computing.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Apple Computer, Inc., Lisa Owner's Guide (1983), Appendix 5, "Hardware Specifications". Hosted on this wiki as File:Apple Lisa Owners Guide 1983.pdf.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 Apple Computer, Inc., Apple Service Technical Procedures: Lisa/Macintosh XL — Set-up §C "Checking the Battery Switch" and §E "Installing the ProFile"; Diagnostics → "Interpreting the Boot ROM and I/O ROM"; Troubleshooting → error-number tables, "Basic Lisa 2/Macintosh XL Configuration Table" and "System Boards Compatibility Table"; Lisa 2 General Information. Hosted on this wiki as File:Apple Service Technical Procedures Lisa-Macintosh XL.pdf.