A glitch in a forthcoming chipset from Intel Corp. could delay adoption of a new type of high-speed memory and potentially cause millions of dollars worth of PC motherboards to be scrapped, according to a leading industry analyst.

Word of the bug caused declines for the shares of Intel Corp. and Rambus Inc. the company that licenses the new technology to memory makers.

Intel shares closed down $1.8281, or 2.36 percent, at $75.6718, while shares of Mountain View-based Rambus stock plunged even further, tumbling $16.375, or 18.71 percent, to $71.125.

Computer makers said Intel would delay the launch of the chipset, known as the 820, originally scheduled to debut Monday, although Intel would not confirm that.

Intel's chipsets act as an intermediary between a PC's microprocessor and its memory. Rambus' technology improves the performance of memory chips and got a strong vote of approval when it was backed by Intel, the No. 1 computer-chip maker.

With Intel's backing Rambus' technology would become the standard for dynamic random=access memory chips, or DRAM, the most common memory chip in PCs.

Peter Glaskowsky, analyst at MicroDesign Resources, said the problem is with the electrical interface to the Rambus based memory. This problem prevents the use of a motherboard with three memory slots -- a configuration many computer makers had used.

"During the testing of the machines they discovered they were not reliable," he said.

Glaskowsky said that Intel and computer makers have decided to withdraw those machines from production and rework the units with bug-free motherboards.

Rambus officials confirmed there are problems in some configurations, but said it does not know the cost of solving the problem or how long a fix will take.

Rambus Vice President Subodh Toprani disputed the notion that all the motherboards will need to be scrapped, saying the solution may be as simple as upgrading the basic input/output system (BIOS) software that is built into a computer's hardware.

Glaskowsky said it is difficult to say how many machines have been made, or what the cost will be. If the 820 were a typical chip set, Glaskowsky said he would have expected 500,000 motherboards to have been made by now. Given the high cost of special Rambus-based memory for the units, Glaskowsky said the number could be much lower.

"Even if it's just 100,000, motherboards still cost $100 each; that still implies a lot of money," he said.

Glaskowsky estimated the delay for 820 based systems at between one and three months. All the big computer manufacturers were planning models based on the 820 chip set, he said.

But another analyst said the problem might not be too severe. "The concern is way overdone and not a disaster that people are trying to make it out to be," said Seth Dickson, a Warburg Dillon Read LLC analyst.

Dickson said he thinks hundreds of thousands of computers that are set to debut next week and in the following weeks may have the technical problem, but he expects them to ship anyway.

Dell Computer Corp. spokesman Jon Weisblatt said the direct computer seller found that a problem with the chip set made 820 based systems "not production quality." Weisblatt said he did not know how many Dell bases systems were in production when the problems were discovered, nor did he have a new ship date or a guess as to how much the glitch will cost.

Compaq Computer Corp. said it discovered problems with the 820 several weeks ago. "We discovered the issue while running tests on sample chips," said spokesman Alan Hodel.

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy refused to comment reiterating the company's statement earlier Friday that the 820 chip set will ship this month.

News of the problem was first reported late Thursday by CNET, an online technology news service.

Blomberg News and Bridge News contributed to this story.