Exhibit 99.1


Contact:   Paul Coghlan                              5:00 EST
           Vice President, Finance                   Tuesday, January 18, 2005
           (408) 432-1900                            US1

LINEAR TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES ACCELERATED  VESTING OF  STOCK OPTIONS WITH EXERCISE
PRICES IN EXCESS OF CURRENTMARKET PRICE

     Milpitas,  California,  January 18,  2005,  Linear  Technology  Corporation
(NASDAQ-LLTC),  a leading,  independent  manufacturer of high performance linear
integrated circuits,  today announced it has accelerated the vesting of unvested
stock options awarded more than one year ago to employees and officers under its
stock option plans that had exercise  prices  greater than the current  price of
the stock ($37.04).  The unvested options to purchase  approximately 4.5 million
additional  shares became  exercisable as a result of the vesting  acceleration.
Typically  stock options  granted at Linear  Technology vest equally over a five
year period.
     The  purpose  of the  accelerated  vesting is to enable  Linear  Technology
Corporation to avoid  recognizing in its income statement  compensation  expense
associated with these options in future periods, upon adoption of FASB Statement
No. 123R (Share-Based  Payment) in July 2005. The charge to the income statement
to be avoided  amounts  to  approximately  $75M over the course of the  original
vesting period, of which $36M occurs in the first fiscal year.
     "As an additional  benefit,  because these options have exercise  prices in
excess of  current  market  values of our stock,  we believe  they are not fully
achieving  their  original  objective  of  incentive  compensation  and employee
retention,  and thus the  acceleration  may have a positive  effect on  employee
morale, retention and perception of option value," said Lothar Maier, CEO.

     Linear Technology Corporation was founded in 1981 as a manufacturer of high
performance linear integrated circuits.  Linear Technology products include high
performance  amplifiers,  comparators,  voltage references,  monolithic filters,
linear  regulators,   DC-DC  converters,   battery  chargers,  data  converters,
communications  interface circuits,  RF signal conditioning  circuits,  and many
other analog  functions.  Applications for Linear  Technology's high performance
circuits include  telecommunications,  cellular telephones,  networking products
such as optical switches, notebook and desktop computers,  computer peripherals,
video/multimedia,   industrial  instrumentation,  security  monitoring  devices,
high-end  consumer  products  such as digital  cameras and MP3 players,  complex
medical devices,  automotive electronics,  factory automation,  process control,
and military and space systems.
     For  further   information   contact  Paul  Coghlan  at  Linear  Technology
Corporation,   1630  McCarthy  Blvd.,  Milpitas,  California  95035-7417,  (408)
432-1900.