NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR NAMES GOBI R. PADMANABHAN TO HEAD NETWORK GROUP

April 21, 1999 - National Semiconductor Corporation® (NYSE:NSM) today announced it has appointed Gobi R. Padmanabhan as senior vice president and general manager of the company's Network Products Group.

"Padmanabhan has earned the highest level of credibility with me and the entire executive staff of National Semiconductor by his unparalleled execution as head of process technology development over the last three years," said Brian L. Halla, president and CEO of National. "His team has leapfrogged National over three generations of process technology and brought our state-of-the-art 0.18-micron fab on line in South Portland, Maine," Halla added. "We fully expect Pad will continue this outstanding level of execution as head of the Network group as we continue to focus on thin-client connectivity, home wireless and wired network solutions, and gigabit Ethernet™."

Padmanabhan joined National in 1996 as senior vice president of technology research and development from LSI Logic Inc., where he was senior director of process technology. Before moving to LSI in 1990, he worked at Alliance Semiconductor. He also previously worked at National and Fairchild before joining Performance Semiconductor in 1985. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in physics and solid state physics, as well as a Ph.D. in physics, from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi.

National Semiconductor provides system-on-a-chip solutions for the information age. Combining real-world analog and state-of the-art digital technology, the company's chips lead many sectors of the personal computer, communications, and consumer markets. With headquarters in Santa Clara, California, National has annual sales of more than $2 billion and 11,500 employees worldwide. Additional company and product information is available on the World Wide Web at www.national.com.