Re: PTA Prototype Lisa Bezels

Hi Tom,

as I also owe two Lisa 2 with the identical front bezel, I searched for years, what this could mean.
Here a picture of one of them:
www.scharpf-web.de/w/ProtoFrontblende.JPG

and here the results of my search:

• Either PTA means "Prototype Test Article" for the whole Lisa. This could mean, that this Lisa is a Lisa 1, which was used to test the new parts of the Lisa 2 by Apple's development team or it is one of those completely new pre-industrial hand-made Lisa 2, which they built in a first charge, to test them and later to give them away to other companies, which intended to devellop and later sell additional hardware / software for Lisa 2. I had been in contact with one of those companies here in europe, which develloped an Audio I/O Card for Lisa 2. Unfortunately the Lisa 2 project was stopped before this company was able to start with the production of their card and strange but a fact, this audio-functions (only output) were designed (or copied) identically by Apple in the next product: The Apple Macintosh (later known as Mac 128k).
• Or PTA simple means "Plastic" (Purified Terephthalic Acid), what will mean, that only the bezel is a prototype part. Perhaps Apple had to make several attempts with this bezel. We all know how critical the small vertical dimensions of the floppy-slot are. Sometimes floppies hang or scratch the front bezels slot.

By the way: I also owned a protype Lisa 2. The major difference to other Lisas was, that all boards were marked with white letters "PROTOTYPE" and parts of the housing, too. The word was not written, but either printed or stamped.
www.scharpf-web.de/w/ProtoBasis.JPG
www.scharpf-web.de/w/ProtoCPU.JPG
This prototype was made short before the time, when Apple (or let's better say: Steve Jobs) decided to cancel the Lisa project and switch to the third product: The Macintosh, after they created Apple I and II and III, and after the Lisa 1 and Lisa 2. I asume this prototype was the effort to change the Lisa 2 in a Lisa-based Macintosh. But nobody wanted to buy such a product, when a Macintosh was sold for less money than such a converted Lisa, which first was not as sexy as the Mac was and second which had a lower technical equipment built in... So a lot of Lisas died in a dump in Utah...

I once saw another Lisa 2, which had a punched word "PROTOTYPE" in the metallic frame in the right corner above the CRT. So there seem to exist a lot of protoypes in different evolution- stages. Have a look to this:
www.scharpf-web.de/w/ProtoStecker.JPG
Perhaps someone could provide us with more facts?

greetings TOM from Bavaria, the center of Europe, the country of the Alps, the marvellous castles of Koenig Ludwig and last but not least: The original Octoberfest

Am 07.01.2014 um 19:21 schrieb Tom Frikker:

> Hello,
> Both of the Lisa 2 Bezels that I own right now (the third Lisa's on
> its way) both have "PTA Prototype" molded inside the front bezel.
> Does anyone know what this means, if anything?
>

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