``The anticipated global sales improvement in the month of June did not materialize as we had anticipated,'' said Robert Rivet, AMD's chief financial officer. He said sales from chips used in PCs and cell phones were down significantly in Asia because of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Analysts expect AMD to lose 28 cents per share on sales of $723 million in the second quarter. AMD will report its full second quarter results on July 16.

In the first quarter, the company lost $146 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with a loss of $9.2 million, or 3 cents a share, in the same period last year.

In April, AMD launched its Opteron processors, which can handle data in 64-bit chunks, twice the size of today's standard 32-bit processors. It plans to launch a version of the chip, dubbed Athlon 64, for desktop computers later this year.

But it won't be alone. On Monday, Apple Computer Inc. unveiled its next-generation Power Macintosh, which is based on the 64-bit PowerPC G5 processor manufactured by IBM Corp. IBM calls the chip the PowerPC 970.

So far, Intel has not jumped into the 64-bit desktop fray. Its 64-bit strategy is focused on the Itanium, which it developed over a decade with Hewlett-Packard Co. and is targeted at high-end workstations and servers.

By: DocMemory
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