DOS Days - Orchid

Orchid Technology

Orchid was a graphics card and sound card manufacturer for the IBM PC and its compatibles.

It was acquired by Micronics, the motherboard manufacturer in August 1994.

Pro Designer II / IIs

Launched: 1991 (II), 1993 (IIs)
Bus: ISA 16-bit.
Memory: 1 MB.
Price: ?
FCC ID: DDS7EF0191-91-PRO
Known BIOS Versions: 1.1, 3.3, 5.0
Known Board Revisions: 1A, 1C, 2/08, 2/810

The ProDesigner IIs provides up to 32768 colours with its 1 MB video RAM and if the Sierra HC RAMDAC is installed. Maximum resolution is 1024 x 768.

It is one of those rare cards that will work in either an 8-bit or 16-bit ISA or EISA slot, with auto-detection to switch to 8 or 16-bit data transfer speeds.

User Manual
Driver Disk (1 x 5.25" floppy)

More images: 1

Celcius/VLB

Launched: 1993
Bus: VLB.
Memory: 1 MB VRAM, upgradable to 2 MB.
Price: ?

Based on IIT's AGX015 graphics processor.

Supports up to 90 Hz flicker-free refresh rates, 16.8 million colours, and resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 (in 16 colours non-interlaced).

User Manual
Driver Disk v1.3 (1 x 1.2MB floppy)

Fahrenheit

Launched: 1991
Bus: ISA 16-bit.
Memory: 1 MB.
Price: ?

Kelvin 64 / EZ

Launched: 1994
Chipset:
Bus: ISA, VLB, or PCI
Memory: 1 MB (upgradable) or 2 MB DRAM
Price: ?
FCC ID: DDS7EF1093-93-KVL (VLB), DDS7EFKELVI64-PCI (PCI)
Known BIOS Versions: 1.1, 1.10b
Known Board Revisions: 1C

The Kelvin EZ is a 32-bit version of Kelvin, supporting resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 and colours up to 16.8 million. Kelvin 64 was the first affordable 64-bit graphics accelerator available for ISA, VESA Local Bus and PCI.

Fahrenheit 1280

Launched: 1991
Chipset: S3 911/924 Pre&Vision (86C911)
Bus: ISA 16-bit.
Memory: 1 MB VRAM
Price: $499
FCC ID: DDS7EF0691-91-ETH
Known BIOS Versions: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 3.0
Known Board Revisions: 2/A4, 2/B2, 2/B3, 2/B4

Fahrenheit ProVideo 64

Launched: 1994
Chipset: S3 86C968
Bus: PCI or VLB.
Memory: 2MB (upgradable) or 4MB VRAM
FCC ID: DDS7EFFP64964-VLB
Known BIOS Versions: 1.0
Known Board Revisions:
Price: ?

Maximum resolution is 1600 x 1200 and supports refresh rates up to 120 Hz.
Has hardware digital video scaling capabilities, colour space conversion and dithering.

Fahrenheit 64

Launched: 1995
Chipset: S3 86C716
Bus: ISA 16-bit or PCI
Memory: 1 MB (upgradable) or 2 MB DRAM.
Price: ?

Displays 16.8 million colours at a resolution of 800 x 600 (2 MB cards only). Highest resolution is 1280 x 1024. Refresh rates up to 75 Hz.

Righteous 3D

Launched: 1995
Chipset: S3 86C716
Bus: ISA 16-bit or PCI
Memory: 1 MB (upgradable) or 2 MB DRAM.
FCC ID:DDS7EFF06964M3DFX
Price: ?

The Righteous 3D was a licenced build of the 3dfx Voodoo 3D graphics accelerator.

Fahrenheit Pro64

Launched: 1995
Chipset: ?
Bus: PCI or VLB.
Memory: 4 MB VRAM.
Price: ?

Maximum resolution is 1280 x 1024. Supports high speed horizontal and vertical acceleration in all display modes.

Displays 16.8 million colours at a resolution of 1024 x 768. Refresh rates up to 120 Hz.

Kelvin Video64

Launched: 1995/1996
Chipset: Alliance Semiconductor ProMotion 6410
Bus: PCI
Memory: 1 MB (upgradable) or 2 MB DRAM
FCC ID: JYBPCI3210D
Known BIOS Versions: 3.15
Known Board Revisions: D
Price: ?

Display resolution up to 1600 x 1200, colour depth up to 16.7 million colours,

Kelvin MPEG

Launched: 1995/1996
Chipset:
Bus: PCI
Memory: 1 MB (upgradable) or 2 MB DRAM
Price: ?

Video playback up to 1280 x 1024 at 30 frames per second in 24-bit colour.

Fahrenheit Video 3D

Launched: 1996
Bus: PCI
Memory: 2 MB EDO DRAM.
Price: ?

3D graphics accelerator features Bi-Linear and Tri-Linear filtering, MIP mapping and Gouraud shading, perspective correction, video texture mapping, depth cueing and fogging, alpha blending and Z-buffering.

Maximum display resolution is 1600 x 1200.

Sound Cards

Sound Producer

FM synthesizer: Yamaha YM3812-F
Audio codec: ?
Interface: 8-bit ISA
Model No.: SP-7524
FCC ID: 138-SGBX21
Price when New: £40

Supports Ad Lib and Sound Blaster.

Sound Producer Pro

Launched: 1992
FM Synthesizer: Yamaha YMF262-M (OPL3) or LS-212.
Chipset: Aztech AZTSSPT0592-U01 (1st generation card).
DAC: Yamaha YAC512
Price when New: ?

Supports Ad Lib, Sound Blaster Pro II, Disney Sound Source and Covox Speech Thing.
20-voice stereo FM synthesizer.
Recording sampling rate is 4 KHz to 44.1 KHz (mono) or 4 KHz to 22.05 KHz (stereo)
Built-in ISA CD-ROM drive interface. Optional SCSI CD-ROM interface.
Game port has MIDI interface.
4W amplifier.

The Orchid Sound Producer Pro is a rebadged Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro.

GameWave

FM synthesizer: ?
Audio codec: ?
Price when New: $110

Rich Heimlich said this of the GameWave: "A less expensive and less impressive version of the SoundWave 32. In this case, that's not a very good thing.". It scored 2 out of 10 for digital quality and 1 out of 10 for music quality.

SoundDrive 16

Launched: 1994
FM synthesizer: ?
Audio codec: ?
Price when New: -

Supports Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, and Microsoft Windows Sound System.

GameWave 32

Launched: 1994
FM synthesizer: ?
Audio codec: ?
DSP: Analog Devices ADSP2115.
Price when New: ?

Supports Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, General MIDI, Roland MPU-401 interface and Roland MT-32. GameWave 32 has over 2 MB of samples onboard.

Sony and Mitsumi CD-ROM interfaces.

GameWave 32 Plus

Launched: 1994
FM synthesizer: ?
Audio codec: ?
DSP: ?
Price when New: ?

NuSound PnP 32

Launched: 1995
FM synthesizer: ?
Audio codec: ?
Price when New: ?

Features plug and play compatibility, Spatializer 3D audio technology.
Supports Windows Sound System, General MIDI, Roland MT-32, Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro.

SoundWave 32

Launched: 1994
FM synthesizer: ?
Audio codec: ?
DSP: Analog Devices ADSP2115.
Price when New: -

Supports Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Microsoft Sound System, General MIDI, Roland MPU-401 interface and Roland MT-32. SoundWave 32 has 2 MB of samples onboard.

SoundWave 32 Pro

Launched: 1994
FM synthesizer: OPL2 FM emulation
Audio codec: ?
DSP: Analog Devices ADSP2115.
Price when New: -

Supports Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Microsoft Windows Sound System, General MIDI, and Roland MPU-401 interface. SoundWave 32 has 2 MB of samples onboard.

Comes with Sony and Mitsumi CD-ROM drive interfaces.

SoundWave 32+SCSI / 32Pro SCSI / 32+Studio

Launched: 1994
FM synthesizer: OPL2 FM emulation
Audio codec: ?
DSP: Analog Devices ADSP2115.
Price when New: -

Supports Ad Lib, Sound Blaster, Microsoft Windows Sound System, General MIDI, and Roland MPU-401 interface. Has 2 MB of samples onboard (a total of 56 wavetable synthesis voices).

Comes with SCSI-2 and Mitsumi CD-ROM drive interfaces.

The 32+Studio is the same as 32+SCSI and 32Pro SCSI, but adds Orchid's WaveBooster 4FX high-quality wavetable synthesizer card, which features 4 MB of ROM samples, built-in digital effects such as reverb, chorus, and is compatible with GS (General Synthesizer) specification.

SoundWave 32 with InVision

FM synthesizer: ?
Audio codec: ?
Price when New: $169

Rich Heimlich said this of the SW32 w/InVision: "A very competent entry level card if you want better sound but you get what you pay for which in this case means a low quality patch set and poor SB/FM compatibility.". He scored it 3 out of 10 for digital quality and 2.5 out of 10 for music quality.