Apple Lisa 2 Computer

The Apple Lisa 2 was the first hardware revision of the Apple Computer’s first personal computer Lisa, released in January of 1983. Lisa 2, was released in January 1984. The Lisa 2 had the notable distinction of introducing the new Apple inlaid logo. Its price less expensive that the original model (almost twice as low). Lisa 2 also dropped the unreliable Twiggy floppy drives in favor of a single 400k Sony microfloppy. Its revised version, the Lisa 2/5 (5 for 5 Meg Profile drive) consisted of a Lisa 2 bundled with an external 5MB or 10MB hard drive. In 1984 Apple offered free upgrades to the Lisa 2/5 to all Lisa 1 owners, by swapping the pair of Twiggy drives for a single 3.5-inch drive. Apple also offered to update the boot ROM and I/O ROM. Lisa 2 had the first Snow White design language features. The last revisiom of Lisa 2 – Lisa 2/10 featured a 10MB internal hard drive known as Widget. The System I/O board was redesigned to support the new hard drive. The parallel port was removed. To upgrade from the Lisa 1 to the Lisa 2/10 cost $2495.

Apple Lisa 2

Introduced: January 1984.

Specifications

• CPU: Motorola 68000. 7,89 MHZ.
• Storage: 400k Sony microfloppy. The new drive held half as much data as the old one, but was much more reliable. The Lisa 2/10 featured an optional 10 MB internal proprietary hard disk manufactured by Apple, known as the “Widget”.
• RAM: 1 Meg, additional 512K could be purchased
• OS: Apple Lisa GUI (Graphical User Interface). Xenix.
• Ports: The motherboard had a basic backplane with virtually no electronic components. It had though two RAM slots, one CPU slot and one I/O slot all in parallel placement to each other. There were also three Lisa slots.
• Possible Expansion: Three internal slots available.The external Profile HD can not be used with this system unless a parallel port expansion card is installed.
• Display: 12” monochrome monitor sold separately.

Apple Model, Discontinuation, Price

Cost of upgrading: The upgrade from the original Lisa 1 to the Lisa 2/5 was free to Lisa owners until June 1984, after which it cost $595. To upgrade from the Lisa 1 to the Lisa 2/10 cost $2495.

Price: Original price $5,495 (depending on configuration, monitor not included). An additional 512K of RAM could be purchased for $1495. In January 1985, the price was lowered to $3,995 and sales tripled.

Discontinued: August 1986.

Miscellanea

• Lisa’s real-time clock depended on a 4 x AA-cell NiCd pack of batteries that only lasted for a few hours when mains power were not present. Besides the packs often busts open and leaks corrosive acid that ruins the circuit boards.
• A 1.5 MB memory board developed by AST, when combined with the standard Apple 512 KB memory board, expanded the Lisa to a total of 2 MB of memory, the maximum the MMU could address.
• The final revision of the Apple Lisa, the 2/10 version, cheaper and better, was sold as the Macintosh XL.
• Apple stated the name Lisa was an acronym for Local Integrated System Architecture. However Steve Jobs’ first daughter was named Lisa Nicole Brennan (she was born in 1978), and rumor says that the acronym was reverse engineered from the name Lisa. Many years later Jobs would tell his biographer Walter Isaacson: “Obviously it was named for my daughter.”
• In January 1985, the Lisa 2/10, with integrated 10 MB hard drive, was re-branded the Macintosh XL and positioned as Apple’s high-end Macintosh.

Links

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