Orchid Designer VGA / Pro Designer VGA / Pro Designer VGA+
The Orchid Designer series, launched in 1988, were fast graphics adapters compatible with the IBM VGA standard.
| Released | 1988 | |
| Bus | ISA 8-bit (Designer VGA) or 16-bit (Pro Designer VGA/+) | |
| Chipset | Tseng Labs ET3000 | |
| Standards | Hercules, MDA, CGA, EGA, VGA | |
| Memory | 256 KB or 512 KB | |
| RAMDAC | Inmos IMSG171P-50 | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (analogue video out) | |
| Part # | 830-0008-X (Designer VGA) 830-0022-X (Pro Designer VGA+) |
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| FCC ID | DDS2EF1088-88-PRO (Pro Designer VGA+) | |
| Price | Jan 1989: $349 (PD VGA) Nov 1989: $279 (PD VGA) or $369 (PD VGA+) |
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| See Also |
The Designer series of VGA cards also had full register-level compatibility to earlier IBM graphics standards including MDA, Hercules, CGA and EGA, as well as AT&T/Olivetti.
The Orchid Designer was an 8-bit card and came with either 256 KB or 512 KB of DRAM video memory which was soldered onto the board. Some Designer VGA cards also came with a 9-pin DSUB on the backplate for TTL video connection directly to digital colour and monochrome monitors (for Hercules, CGA and EGA).
The Pro Designer VGA Plus was a full-length 16-bit ISA card, and came with a VGA feature connector on the top.
I did a retro review of another Tseng Labs ET3000 card in February 2024 which is very similar to the Orchid Pro Designer.
Board Revisions
I have no information on the various board revisions on the Orchid Designer series of cards.
Competition
In the Media
Setting it Up
I have no information of the hardware set up for the Orchid cards.
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Original Utility Disk Orchid Utility Disk for use with the Designer series of cards. |
Pro Designer Plus VGA ROM BIOS Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
