BEIJING, April 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Magma(r) Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA), a provider of chip design software, today announced the winners of the MUSIC China "Best Paper" awards. MUSIC (Magma Users Summit on Integrated Circuits) was held in Shanghai April 9.

The top paper award went to Lei Zhang of NVIDIA for his paper titled "Floorplanning a Complicated Partition with the Talus(r) Tcl Interface." The second place award went to Koki Tsurusaki of Renesas Technology for his paper titled "Prototyping a Large-Scale System-on-a-Chip with a Complex Floorplan and Massive Amount of Hard Macros." Third place went to Ding-shan You of the Institute of Computing Technologies, Chinese Academy of Sciences for his paper titled "The Physical Implementation of a Complex Switch ASIC for a High-Performance Parallel Computing System."

"MUSIC provided an excellent opportunity for Chinese IC designers to network with and learn from each other and Magma," said Mao Zhigang, MUSIC Shanghai chairman and vice dean of the School of Microelectronics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. "The conference provided attendees with a wide range of information about 65-nm and 45-nm design methodologies, tips on tool usage, and topics ranging from library characterization to design for manufacturability to analog design."

"Since establishing operations in China in 2002, Magma has gone from being practically unknown to being recognized as a leading EDA tool vendor in this region," said Haiwei Chen, managing director of Magma China. "To help the China IC design industry continue to mature and grow, designers must participate in forums that enable them to share expertise and gain knowledge. With an impressive number of attendees and a technically rich program, MUSIC China provided a forum that benefited Magma users and the design community."

Magma users who missed the conference can access the MUSIC papers and presentations via MOLTEN, Magma's online technical support. For more information, visit  www.magma-da.com/MUSIC.

About Magma

Magma's software for designing integrated circuits (ICs) is used to create complex, high-performance chips required in cellular telephones, electronic games, WiFi, MP3 players, DVD/digital video, networking, automotive electronics and other electronic applications. Magma's EDA software for IC implementation, analysis, physical verification, circuit simulation and characterization is recognized as embodying the best in semiconductor technology, enabling the world's top chip companies to "Design Ahead of the Curve" while reducing design time and costs. Magma is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices around the world. Magma's stock trades on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol LAVA. Visit Magma Design Automation on the Web at  www.magma-da.com.

Magma and Talus are registered trademarks and "Design Ahead of the Curve" is a trademark of Magma Design Automation Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Forward-looking Statements:

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including statements about the features and benefits of Magma's software 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). Magma undertakes no additional obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:  Magma Design Automation Inc.
          Kelly Wang, Corporate Marketing Manager, China
            +86 10-62682280, ext. 8088
            kellyw@magma-da.com
          Monica Marmie, Director, Marketing Communications, USA
            408-565-7689
            
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