DOS Days

Orchid Technology

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

They formed in the mid-80s designing and producing memory expansion and CPU upgrade boards. Popular products from Orchid include the RamQuest series of intelligent memory expansion cards, and the Tiny Turbo 286 and Twin Turbo CPU upgrade boards.

For a number of their sound cards they partnered with InVision Interactive to provide their wavetable soundfonts.

The company was acquired by the motherboard manufacturer Micronics in August 1994, who then sold it to Diamond Multimedia in late 1998. The acquisition, first announced in September 1998, left some in the press wondering what the future of Orchid might look like, just as the company had released their 3dfx Voodoo2 card, Orchid Righteous 3D II.

In chronological order here is Orchid's range:

ISA Cards VLB, AGP and PCI Cards
Graphics Cards
EGA (1986)
Turbo EGA (1986)
Turbo PGA (1987)
Designer VGA / Pro Designer VGA / + (1989)
Pro Designer II / IIs (1991)
Fahrenheit (1991)
Fahrenheit 1280 (1991)
Fahrenheit VA (1993)

Sound Cards
Sound Producer
(1992)
Sound Producer Pro (1992)
SoundWave 32 (1993)
GameWave 32 (1994)
SoundDrive 16 (1994)
NuSound PnP 32 (1995)
Fahrenheit VA/VLB (1993)
Celsius/VLB (1993)
Kelvin 64 / Kelvin 64 Video / Kelvin EZ (1994)
Fahrenheit ProVideo 64 (1994)
Kelvin MPEG (1994)
Fahrenheit 64 / Fahrenheit Pro64 (1995)
Righteous 3D (1996)
Fahrenheit Video 3D (1996)
Righteous 3D II (1998)