History bytes-Apple Lisa


The Apple Lisa is a desktop computer developed by Apple, released on January 19, 1983. It was one of the first personal computers to offer a graphical user interface (GUI) in a machine aimed at individual business users. Development of the Lisa began in 1978, and it underwent many changes during the development period before shipping at the very high price of US$9,995 with a 5 MB hard drive. The high price, relatively low performance and unreliable “Twiggy” floppy disks led to poor sales, with only 100,000 units sold.
Officially, “Lisa” stood for “Local Integrated Software Architecture”, but it was also the name of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ daughter.

The Lisa is the first commercial computer with a GUI, or Graphical User Interface. Prior to the Lisa, all computers were text based – you typed commands on the keyboard to make the system respond. Now, with the Lisa, you just point-and-click at tiny pictures on the screen with a small rolling device called a ‘mouse’.


Apple Lisa
Introduced: January 1983
Released: June 1983
Price: US $9,995
How many? 100,000 in two years
CPU: Motorola 68000, 5 MHz
RAM: 1 Meg
Display: 12″ monochrome monitor
720 X 364 graphics
Ports: 1 parallel, 2 serial ports
mouse port
Expansion: three internal slots
Storage: Two 5-1/4 inch floppy drives
external 5 Meg hard drive
OS: Apple Lisa GUI


