Analysts said the computer difficulties could be a blow to I.B.M.'s plan to position itself as a major integrator of technology systems.

"It's an amazingly ambitious goal to provide all of this information in real time to the whole world," said Roger B. McNamee, principal of Integral Capital Partners, a technology management and investment firm in Menlo Park, Calif. "That said, dropping your shorts in front of the entire world is significantly more embarassing than doing it privately."

Andrew B. Whinston, professor of economics and computer science at the University of Texas, said the failure might complicate I.B.M.'s efforts to sell its Lotus Notes software, the backbone of the Atlanta results system, as an Internet tool and internal corporate data-base system.

"It's an extreme disaster for I.B.M. because they've been touting Lotus Notes as a solution for system integration and integration with the World Wide Web," he said. "They spent $20 million to $30 million in advertising and it has kind of exploded in their face. They've completely undone their arguments about Lotus Notes' abilities to interface with the outside world."

Late today, Olympic technology officials were organizing a manual results system that the ancient Greeks could appreciate. Results are to be transmitted by facsimile machines from outlying venues to a central office and distributed by runners.

American and international news agencies, which had been promised a sophisticated electronic results system fed directly from Olympic computers, said the system had failed. The agencies said they were forced to assign employees to watch the competitions on television and then type results into their systems.

"It is disappointing to know that what was billed as a state-of-the-art results service can't even produce bare scores in some cases," said Terry Taylor, the sports editor for The Associated Press.