LisaFPGA: Open-Source Project Revives Apple’s Lisa Inside an FPGA
A new open-source project recreates Apple's historic Lisa computer on a custom FPGA board, offering modern connectivity and low power consumption.
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A new open-source project, LisaFPGA, aims to bring Apple's groundbreaking but commercially unsuccessful Lisa computer back to life using field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. The project, hosted on GitHub and led by developer alexthecat123, implements a fully functional Apple Lisa inside a Xilinx Artix 7 100T FPGA on a custom-designed 6-layer PCB.
The LisaFPGA board emulates a Lisa 1 or 2/5, providing 2MB of RAM (configurable from 512KB to 2MB) and all original I/O except expansion slots. It supports on-the-fly overclocking up to 3.75 times the original Lisa's speed and can switch between two CPU board ROMs (H and 3A) at runtime. Power consumption is low at approximately 2.8W, allowing 14-18 hours of operation from a standard 10,000mAh USB power bank.
Modern features include 1080p HDMI video and audio output, USB keyboard and mouse support, and an onboard speaker based on the original Lisa’s audio amplifier circuit. The board integrates an ESP32-based ESProFile for hard disk emulation and an ESP32-based floppy drive emulator (still in development). An optional breakout board enables support for Twiggy drives, though this feature remains untested as the developer lacks original drives.
LisaFPGA boards are available for $350 through MacEffects and Joe's Computer Museum, with several-week lead times due to high demand. For those who prefer to build their own, the project is fully open-source, though self-fabrication costs roughly $500 per board in small quantities. The developer recommends JLCPCB for PCB fabrication, as the design is tailored to their stock and stackups.
According to a discussion on The Register Forums, the original Lisa was noted for its high price—reportedly costing as much as two conventional computers—which contributed to its failure. The LisaFPGA project aims to make this historic machine accessible to enthusiasts and researchers.