Description

Have you ever wanted an Apple Lisa but haven’t been able to get your hands on one? Or maybe you do have a Lisa but want a faster and more modern Lisa experience?

Well, now there’s a solution: LisaFPGA!

LisaFPGA is an FPGA-based device that implements all of the functionality of a Lisa 1 or Lisa 2/5 (minus expansion slots) on a single compact PCB, plus a bunch of modern enhancements that make it better and easier to use. Its key features include:

Easy firmware updates over USB-C.
Overclocking up to 3.75x the speed of the original Lisa.
HDMI audio and video output, plus an onboard speaker if your HDMI display doesn’t support audio.
Real-time switching between square and rectangular pixels ROMs.
USB keyboard and mouse support, in addition to support for original Lisa peripherals.
Onboard ESProFile hard disk emulator, alongside an external ProFile hard disk port.
Maxed-out 2MB of RAM.
All of the original Lisa’s I/O minus the expansion slots.
Onboard ESFloppy floppy disk emulator, alongside an external floppy drive port. NOTE: The floppy emulator doesn’t work yet (and may never work), but it should be enabled with a future firmware update assuming everything goes well. For now, you can connect a real floppy drive or Floppy Emu to the external port if you want floppy drive functionality.
Twiggy drive support with an optional breakout.
Ability to reroute the Lisa’s Serial port B over the PCB’s USB-C port, eliminating the need for an external USB-to-serial adapter.

To get fully up and running, you’ll need a USB-C cable to power your board, a microSD card of any size for the ESProFile hard disk emulator, a 1080p HDMI-compatible monitor, and either a USB or original Lisa keyboard and mouse. All stuff that you probably have sitting around already!

If you plan on using Twiggy drives with your LisaFPGA board, you’ll also need a LisaFPGA Twiggy Breakout.

You can find the LisaFPGA user’s manual on GitHub. LisaFPGA is also fully open-source, so the source code and PCB design files are available there too.