Is it a Lisa or Mac XL?!

From: Sellam Ismail <foo_at_siconic.com>
Date: Wed Nov 28 11:59:37 2001

On Tue, 27 Nov 2001 MTPro_at_aol.com wrote:

> Lisa 2: The Lisa 2 has one 3.5-inch 400K disk drive, different disk
> drive controller circuitry, and a redesigned front panel to
> accommodate the single 3.5-inch drive opening. A 400K floppy
> controller, labeled the "Lisa Lite Adapter," is mounted inside the
> disk drive cage. The System I/0 board is socketed for an AMD 9512
> arithmetic processor. It has nickel-cadmium battery backup for the
> real time clock. One 512K memory board is standard. The mother board
> has a mouse connector, two serial connectors, and an external parallel
> connector. The power supply is rated 1.2 A.

I'll add that the Lisa 2 is actually an upgraded Lisa 1. When Apple's
Twiggy drives proved troublesome, Apple apparently offered an upgrade to
anyone with a Lisa to replace the Twiggy's with a Sony 3.5" drive. So you
got a new drive assembly and front panel, and returned the old ones.
Most people took advantage of this upgrade, which is why it's so hard to
find an original Lisa these days.

Since the Lisa 2 is simply a Lisa with new drive and front panel, it's
possible to reverse the upgrade and end up with an original Lisa, however,
good luck finding the front panel or Twiggy drives. I have heard of one
fellow in Australia who was able to round up all the necessary parts and
ended up with an original Lisa.

You can tell if you have an actual Lisa 2 (as opposed to a 2/10) by
looking at the I/O ports on the back panel. If you have the following
buttons and ports, in order from left to right, then you most likely have
a Lisa upgraded to a Lisa 2:

RESET VIDEO OUT PARALLEL DEVICE MOUSE SERIAL DEVICE A SERIAL DEVICE B

Also, as mentioned by David, the power supply is rated at 1.2A.

If you don't have this configuration then you have the newer re-designed
Lisa 2/10.

Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
Received on Wed Nov 28 2001 - 11:59:37 GMT

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