and Microsoft, AST licensed the rights from Microsoft to market its own OEM versions of OS/2 as an option for its Premium line of computers. In late 1988, AST joined eight other major PC compatible manufacturers to develop the Extended Industry Standard Architecture as a viable competitor to IBM's closely guarded Micro Channel bus architecture. This consortium was known as the "Gang of Nine", although in truth Compaq was the lead writer of the EISA specification. From July to November 1988, AST introduced seven models of Premium computers, and in early September 1988, they announced a $2.2 million television advertising campaign, the first commercials of which premiering during the 1988 Summer Olympics that month. The television commercials comprised roughly 20 percent of AST's $12 million advertising budget and were supported by a line of memorabilia, including pins, posters, and video tapes, tying in with the Olympics and offered at computer dealer shows. By the end of 1988, AST's restructuring and advertising efforts were successful, with year-to-year sales increasing 100 percent to $412.7 million. AST was now third place in sales among manufacturers of PC compatibles, behind IBM and Compaq. After a heated boardroom debate with Yuen in late 1988, Wong was ousted from AST. Wong had complained to the other founders of the company's recent turbulence. In January 1989, the company laid of 120 employees, or six percent of the workforce. In early 1989, AST reported its first quarterly loss, totaling $8.9 million. The technology press speculated that the loss was due to AST ignoring Intel's development of the i486 while the company was busy restructuring and boosting its advertising. When Intel released the i486 to the public in early 1989, AST was one of the few PC compatible manufacturers which had not announced a i486 computer in the pipeline contemporaneously. Slowing sales led to crowded warehouses of AST products, leading to strain for AST in the form of storage costs. To recoup its losses, in April 1989, the company spun off Camintonn, relinquishing control to the division's managers, and in mid-1989, the company sold its Apple-related products to Orange Micro. Turnaround (1989–1994) In 1989, AST introduced Cupid, the trademark for a method of allowing computer systems to be forward-compatible with upgraded microprocessors and memory chips. This works by having the motherboard be a passive backplane, with no processor and memory which are instead located on a Cupid expansion card,