Magma Names Qlogic's Govind Kizhepat to Board of Directors

Semiconductor Industry Veteran Brings Networking and Multimedia Expertise

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 25, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Magma® Design Automation (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design software, announced today the appointment of semiconductor industry veteran Govind Kizhepat to its board of directors. Kizhepat is vice president of Business Development at Qlogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC), a global leader and technology innovator in high-performance networking, including adapters, switches and ASICs.

"Govind brings to our board significant experience and valuable perspective on the semiconductor industry, particularly the networking and multimedia markets," said Rajeev Madhavan, Magma chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors. "His expertise will be a valuable resource to Magma as we continue to develop and deliver advanced analog and digital integrated circuit design solutions."

In 2002 Kizhepat founded NetXen, a provider of intelligent network controller chips and adapters for the enterprise server market, and served as CEO until it was acquired by Qlogic in 2009. He was previously an entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital and executive vice president of Globespan, heading the Media Gateway Division. In 1996 Kizhepat founded iCompression and served as CEO until 1998 and later served as chairman and vice president of Engineering until it was acquired by Globespan in 2000. Kizhepat's prior experience includes serving in various technical leadership and management positions at S3 and Sun Microsystems, where he played key roles in the development of SuperSPARC and UltraSPARC processors.

Kizhepat holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Delhi in India, and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Wayne State University in Michigan.

About Magma

Magma's electronic design automation (EDA) software provides the "Fastest Path to Silicon"™ and enables the world's top chip companies to create high-performance integrated circuits (ICs) for cellular telephones, electronic games, WiFi, MP3 players, digital video, networking and other electronic applications. Magma products are used in IC implementation, analog/mixed-signal design, analysis, physical verification, circuit simulation and characterization. The company maintains headquarters in San Jose, Calif., and offices throughout North America, Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Magma's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Follow Magma on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MagmaEDA and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Magma. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at www.magma-da.com.

Magma is a registered trademark and "Fastest Path to Silicon" is a trademark of Magma Design Automation, Inc. All other product, company and institution names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Forward-looking Statements:

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements in quotations from Magma's management, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including but not limited to the ability of Magma's products to produce the desired results and the company's ability to keep pace with rapidly changing technology. Further discussion of these and other potential risk factors may be found in Magma's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov), including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended November 1, 2009. The company undertakes no additional obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:  Magma Design Automation
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