By Megan Ma

Rambus, a Los Altos-based company specializing in high-speed computer chips, is the latest in a spate of high-tech firms to initiate an investigation into its stock option-granting practices.

The company announced May 30 that the audit committee of its board of directors has launched an internal investigation into its policies for granting stock options up to and including 2003.

The company expects to receive a request from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to preserve all documents, Rambus spokeswoman Linda Ashmore said. The company has not yet been subpoenaed, she said.

“Our audit committee decided it was prudent to conduct its own internal review given all the attention on this matter,” Ashmore said.

Assisted by the national legal firm Heller Ehrman LLP, the audit committee plans to adhere to practices outlined in the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting and disclosure act of 2002, Ashmore said.

Several other semiconductor and semiconductor equipment companies, including Altera, Analog Devices, Brooks Automation, KLA-Tencor, Linear, Maxim and VITESS, are conducting internal investigations in anticipation that the SEC plans to investigate the timing of option pricing which may have allowed some executives to net greater returns than the average investor.