DOS Days

Diamond Multimedia

Diamond was a graphics and sound card manufacturer for PC compatibles. Their first series was the "SpeedSTAR", based on the Tseng Labs ET4000 and ET4000AX chipsets. This was followed in 1995 with the "Stealth" which offered 3D acceleration under Windows and used a chipset from S3. The SpeedSTAR range became their low-end / budget range at this time. Later on Stealth cards incorporated both 2D and 3D capabilities. Moving towards the late 90s, Diamond introduced the Viper, relegating the Stealth series to be mid-range while they reintroduced the SpeedStar range for budget cards.

In 1998 the company acquired Micronics/Orchid, and soon after merged with S3 in 1999.

"Micronics Computers, manufacturers of the Orchid Righteous 3Dfx card as well as a range of motherboards, have been acquired by Diamond Multimedia Systems for around US $31.6 million. Micronics have been in trouble lately, ever since Intel joined the motherboard market in earnest, providing moderate range boards at a cheap price. Though Micronics Orchid Righteous 3Dfx cards did prove to be popular with consumer, their main source of revenue was through their motherboards, and so Micronics had been struggling financially of late.

Diamond will continue to market and promote Orchid Righteous video cards, including the new Orchid Righteous 2 cards (based on the Voodoo 2) as well as their 'Monster 2' Voodoo2 based cards, though industry analysts have cited the main reason for Diamond's acquisition as being their desire to produce a more diverse range of hardware for PCs. Diamond are also expected to be investigating the possibility of integrating many proprietary products into single entities, which many see as the next direction for peripheral component manufacturers to take. With this latest acquisition, Diamond now produce 2D and 3D graphics cards, motherboards, sound cards, modems, and SCSI adapters, and could conceivably create motherboards and peripheral devices which combine many of these products rather than selling each separately."     PC PowerPlay, July 1998


Diamond Multimedia OEM'd a few sound cards despite being largely remembered for their graphics cards. Oak Technology were the development company behind these, though they exited the PC audio and 3D graphics markets in the quarter ending March 31st, 1998.

Diamond Multimedia Systems resided in San Jose, CA 95134. Support: 408-325-7100, FTP Site: ftp.diamondmm.com
Web Site: www.diamondmm.com,

Here is a table showing all Diamond Multimedia cards in chronological order:

ISA Cards VESA Local Bus Cards AGP and PCI Cards
Graphics Cards:
SpeedSTAR / SpeedSTAR VGA (1991)
Stealth (1991)
SpeedSTAR 24 (1992)
SpeedSTAR 24X (1992)
Stealth VRAM (1992)
Stealth 24 (1992)
Speedstar Pro (1993)
Stealth Pro (1993)
Speedstar 64 (1994)

Sound Cards:
Sonic Pro (1992)
Sonic Sound (1993)
Sonic 3D (1995)
Graphics Cards:
Stealth 24VL (1992)
Stealth Pro (1993)
Speedstar Pro (1993)
Viper VLB (1993)
Speedstar 64 (1994)
Speedstar Pro SE (1994)
Stealth 32 (1994)
Stealth 64 (1994)
Stealth 64 2001 (1995)
Stealth 64 Video 3001 (1996) 		Graphics Cards:
Speedstar 64 PCI (1994)
Speedstar Pro SE (1994)
Stealth 32 (1994)
Stealth 64 (1994)
Stealth SE (1995)
Stealth 64 2001 (1995)
Stealth 64 Video 2001 (1995)
Stealth 64 Video 3001 (1996)
Stealth 3D-2000 / 2000XL (1996)
Monster 3D (1996)
Stealth Video 2500 (1997)
Stealth 3D-3000 / 3000XL (1997)
Viper V330 AGP (1997)
Viper V330 PCI (1997)
Monster 3D II (1998)
Monster Fusion (1998)
Viper V550 AGP/PCI (1998)
SpeedStar A50 (1998)
SpeedStar A55 (1999)
SpeedStar A90 (1999)

PCI Sound Cards:
Monster Sound MX80 (1998)
Monster Sound MX200 (1998)
Monster Sound MX300 (1998)
Sonic Impact S70 / S90 / S100 (1998)
Monster Sound MX400 (1999)

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