National Instruments LabVIEW 8.20 Selected as EDN Software Product 'Innovation of the Year' Award Finalist.

NI LabVIEW 8.20 Also Named to 'Hot 100 Products of 2006' List

AUSTIN, Texas -- National Instruments (Nasdaq:NATI) today announced that LabVIEW 8.20, the 20th anniversary edition of the LabVIEW graphical system design platform for test, control and embedded system design, was selected as a finalist for the 2006 EDN Innovation Awards. The graphical programming environment was also recognized by EDN editors as one of the "Hot 100 Products of 2006" for test and measurement.

LabVIEW 8.20 was chosen as a finalist for the "Innovation of the Year" award in the software category through a combination of industry, peer and EDN editor nominations. The "Innovation of the Year" awards are designed to recognize unique, state-of-the-art electronics products released in the last year that have demonstrated innovation resulting in a significant advance in technology and/or product development.

LabVIEW 8.20 was also named by EDN editors to the "Hot 100 Products of 2006" list. EDN editors compile this list as a way to recognize the 100 most innovative and significant new product releases of the year. LabVIEW 8.20 earned a spot in the top 100 in the test and measurement segment alongside products from companies such as Agilent, LeCroy and Tektronix.

For more than 20 years, LabVIEW graphical development has revolutionized the development of scalable test, measurement and control applications. Regardless of experience, engineers and scientists can rapidly and cost-effectively interface with measurement and control hardware, analyze data, share results and distribute systems. Building on its long history of interconnectivity with third-party hardware and software, LabVIEW 8.20 extends the LabVIEW graphical programming language with native support for text-based math with MathScript; brings significant improvements in control design and simulation performance; and accelerates development of real-time system prototypes using standard PCs, FPGAs or custom designs.

LabVIEW 8.20 delivers an open platform that embraces multiple design tools and uses powerful, custom measurement capabilities to streamline product development, as well as enhances industrial measurement capabilities with new features designed for advanced analysis and control, improved distributed system management and new targets for HMIs.

EDN readers nominated products for the annual "Innovation of the Year" awards online during fall 2006. From the nominees, panels of technical editors organized by area of expertise selected the finalists for the awards in several product categories. Throughout the month of February, EDN readers are asked to vote for the category winners through an online ballot. Winners from each category will be honored at the 17th annual EDN Innovation Awards on April 2, in San Jose, Calif., during the Embedded Systems Conference.

About EDN/Reed Business Information

Known as the "voice of the engineer," Waltham, Mass.-based EDN serves the vital information needs of design engineers and engineering managers worldwide. The EDN franchise includes EDN, EDN Europe, EDN Asia, EDN China, EDN Japan and EDN.com. EDN is a publication within Reed Electronics Group, part of Reed Elsevier plc group (NYSE: RUK and ENL), a world-leading publisher and information provider operating in the science and medical, legal, education and business-to-business industry sectors.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 10 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,000 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past eight years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling 512-683-5090, e-mailing [e-mail] or visiting www.ni.com/nati.

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