Apple Lisa

The Apple Lisa was a high-end office computer built around a Motorola 68000 processor, mouse and graphical desktop. Its document-centred Lisa Office System presented windows, icons, menus and direct manipulation as an integrated alternative to command-line business computers.

One megabyte of RAM, a high-resolution portrait-like display and sophisticated software were extraordinary in 1983, but the $9,995 price and unreliable Twiggy floppy drives restricted sales. Lisa hardware nevertheless became essential to early Macintosh software development.

Notable Features

• Mouse-driven graphical interface integrated seven office applications around documents rather than programs.
• One megabyte of RAM was exceptionally generous for a 1983 personal computer.
• Two custom Twiggy 5.25-inch floppy drives provided high capacity but poor reliability.

Historical Significance

• One of the first commercial personal computers built entirely around a graphical user interface.
• Provided the development environment used to create much early Macintosh software.

Collector’s Notes

• Original Lisa 1 systems and Twiggy drives are extremely rare because many were upgraded to Lisa 2 specification.
• Battery damage, hard-disk condition and complete software documentation materially affect preservation.

Specifications

Technical Information
Name	Apple Lisa
Manufacturer	Apple
Launched	Wednesday, January 19, 1983
Launch Price	$9,995
Country	United States
CPU	Motorola 68000 at 5 MHz
Units Sold
Operating System	Lisa Office System and Lisa Workshop
I/O	Two serial, parallel, mouse and three proprietary expansion slots
Keyboard	Integrated keyboard and one-button mouse
Storage	Two approximately 871KB 5.25-inch Twiggy drives; optional 5MB Profile hard disk
Sound	Internal mono speaker
Graphics	Bitmapped monochrome graphics
Display	Built-in 12-inch 720 x 364 monochrome display
ROM	16KB bootstrap and diagnostic ROM
RAM	1MB
CPU Speed	5 MHz