AMD halts line of low-cost PCs

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has quietly discontinued a money-losing line of low-cost PCs aimed at helping customers in developing countries get access to the Internet, according to a regulatory filing.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company rolled out the Personal Internet Communicator -- a machine that was designed by AMD and used AMD processors but was built by an outside contractor -- in 2004 as part of a campaign by Chief Executive Hector Ruiz to get more of the world’s population online.

The device, which cost $249 for the computer and a 15-inch monitor, initially was sold in India, Russia, China, Mexico and Brazil. Despite the low price, AMD said it had intended to make a profit on the item.

But the company said in a filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it stopped making the machine after it failed to generate significant sales and many of the units were returned.

AMD blamed nearly $16 million in operating losses for the first nine months of 2006 on write-offs related to the low-cost computers.

AMD noted that it has continuing partnerships with One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit group that is researching ways to build $100 laptops for the world’s poorest children, and Microsoft Corp., which is working on a pay-as-you-go program to make computers more accessible to low- income consumers in emerging markets.