HEWLETT PACKARD says that the availability of certain machines will be “impacted” by a chip-design flaw disclosed by Intel and that it will delay a product presentation scheduled for next week in San Francisco.

Intel, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors, said earlier this week that it would incur $1 billion in missed sales and higher costs to fix the design flaw.

The error is affecting other PC makers including Samsung, which said it would offer refunds on some PCs, and NEC, which said it may push back the release of four new models.

The fault is in a support chip, or chipset, for Intel’s latest processor model called Sandy Bridge, unveiled this month in a bid to improve PC graphics and repel a challenge by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

HP, the world’s largest maker of PCs, sold many computers that use chips other than Sandy Bridge, said Marlene Somsak, a spokeswoman for the company.

“HP has the broadest line-up of PCs in the industry and there are many HP choices using a wide variety of processors,” Ms Somsak added. Customers could exchange affected products or get a refund, HP said.

Dell said that the Intel flaw affected four Dell products sold under its XPS, Vostro and Alienware brands.

“We’re committed to addressing this with customers who have already purchased one of the four products, will work directly with them and provide further detail as it becomes available,” said Intel spokesman David Frink.

Computers that use the potentially faulty chips have been on sale since January 9th. Intel said it had corrected the flaw and had begun manufacturing a new version of the chip that would resolve the problem.

Intel said it expected to begin delivering an updated version of Sandy Bridge’s chipset, called Cougar Point, to customers in late February and be at full production in April.

The company has shipped about 8 million of the Cougar Point chips to customers that would have to be replaced, chief financial officer Stacy Smith said on a recent conference call.

Sandy Bridge did not work without the new chipset and therefore the availability of computers built on that product would be held up, Mr Smith added.

That delay reduces the lead that Intel was expected to have over AMD in the introduction of its latest designs and increases the incentive for computer makers to look at AMD’s forthcoming Llano chips, said Gus Richard, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. – (Bloomberg)