National Instruments Increases Quarterly Dividend by 50 Percent

AUSTIN, Texas--April 27, 2004--The National Instruments Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share on the company's common stock payable on June 1, 2004 to shareholders of record on May 1, 20041, 2004. The dividend represents an increase of 50 percent compared to the previous quarterly dividend, which was equivalent to 3.33 cents per share on a post-split basis.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is a technology pioneer and leader in virtual instrumentation -- a revolutionary concept that has changed the way engineers and scientists approach measurement and automation. Leveraging the PC and its related technologies, virtual instrumentation increases productivity and lowers costs for customers worldwide through easy-to-integrate software, such as the NI LabVIEW graphical development environment, and modular hardware, such as PXI modules for data acquisition, instrument control and machine vision. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 3,000 employees and direct operations in 40 countries. In 2003, the company sold products to more than 25,000 different companies in 90 countries around the world. For the past five consecutive years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.

Readers may obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by sending e-mail to nati@ni.com or on the Web at www.ni.com/nati.

LabVIEW, NI and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.