NORTH-EAST scientists are claiming a major advance in the creation of a new generation of electronics and computer technology.

A nanotechnology (NOT) team from the physics department at Durham University successfully carried out a basic computer function using a magnetic microchip.

Conventional electronics harness the electrical charge of electrons.

But using magnetism could enable much smaller, energy-efficient and cheaper chips to be developed.

The magnetic storage of information has already been demonstrated, but the Durham University team has taken the next step of using a magnetic chip to perform a fundamental computing task - the NOT operation that converts a nought to a one and vice versa.

The technology uses the spin of an electron, creating a north and south pole, to produce the ones and noughts that in conventional electronics are made by switching between high and low voltages.

Nanoscale engineering involves working with materials at extremely microscopic levels - a nanometre is about the width of just five atoms.

The team's research paper has been published in the prestigious journal Science, which is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Magnetic chips would save power, would not lose their memory when they are switched off and could be made many times smaller than an electronic chip.

Research team leader Dr Russell Cowburn, said: "It is important and exciting and there is still some way to go, but the potential is there to create a whole new technology based on magnetism rather than electricity."