Holiday shutdowns are the norm this year in Silicon Valley – but demand for Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s Am386 chips is so lusty that the company is bucking the trend, Associated Press reports: This is the first year we’re telling people to stay home, said Chips & Technologies Inc, which is taking three weeks off better that than more layoffs; Tandem Computers Inc and MIPS Computer Systems Inc both sent staff on unpaid leave for Thanksgiving week; IBM Corp’s big San Jose lab will close for a week over Christmas and Intel Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co are following suit – though the latter says that it is not finding things so bad, otherwise it might have shut last week as well; Digital Equipment Corp is staying open, and Advanced Micro says it is actually working overtime to meet demand for the Am386 We’re so busy we wish we were taking Christmas week off for a break, it said – We are not in a down time like the rest of the industry – it’s boom time for us; Business has never been so good.
