AMD Goes on a Two-Week Vacation

End-users may have already gotten used to hearing about strikes, walkouts, protests and/or awkward price listing errors which have been plaguing companies like HP, Dell or Fujitsu. Still, in the case of Advanced Micro Devices, the company won't be interrupting its operation because of any sort of inconvenience. AMD announced that it would be going on a vacation.

The actual announcement of the company implied that AMD would be shutting down for a period of two weeks, set to resume operation on January 4th. This is possible because the Sunnyvale company span off its semiconductor manufacturing plant (fab) to Globalfoundries. In the past, the need to manage its fab was the only thing which compelled the chip maker to stay operational during Christmas, as shutting down such a plant would be too costly.

It seems that now that the actual manufacturing of its products isn't exactly its worry anymore, the company can actually afford an extended vacation. Intel, on the other hand, reportedly won't be shutting down its operations and will continue to function even during the holidays, with a representative confirming that its fabs would operate during Christmas days. It seems, thus, that only Advanced Micro Devices will celebrate its holidays at home this year.

Of course, this does not mean that everything related to Advanced Micro Devices will just stop operating. The manufacturing of processors will continue, as will their marketing. What the shutting down implies is that the actual headquarters in Sunnyvale, and also Austin, won't exactly feature any of the usual board of directors members or company representatives.

Distributors and resellers will work according to their own schedules and, thus, will continue selling AMD products. In parallel, the semiconductor manufacturing plant will maintain its operational status under the supervision of Globalfoundries.

Of course, returning to operation on January 4th means that the Sunnyvale-based chip maker will be all set and ready to enter the Consumer Electronics Show with replenished strength.