DELL Inc and Microsoft Corp are teaming up to release a Product Red computer, donating up to US$80 for every one sold to fund AIDS-fighting drugs in Africa.

Dell will start selling two (Red) laptops and one desktop running Microsoft Windows Vista on Friday. The two companies will donate US$50 for a laptop and US$80 for a desktop to the Global Fund, which finances health programs in Africa.

(Red), founded by U2 singer Bono and Bobby Shriver, works to develop co-branded products with companies such as Motorola Inc, Apple Inc and Gap Inc, which then donate a portion of the proceeds for antiretroviral drugs.

Microsoft said it expects "several hundred thousand" (Red) Dell PCs to be sold this year. The PCs, designed in part by Bono, will have a distinctive red casing and the Windows interface will feature a red background and sidebar.

"My job is to put some poetry in the machine, put some funk in the machines," Bono said of the computer plan.

(Red) has raised US$53 million for the Global Fund since it was founded in 2006. Bono, who expects to exceed that figure this year alone, said the organization lost some potential partners after a critical article in Advertising Age questioned the effectiveness of the campaign.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates defended the group, saying it has saved lives that would have otherwise been lost.