Wiregate: Metallic picket fence flips magnetic bits

Computers typically use magnetism to store data, not to process it. A team of researchers in England is challenging that convention with a magnetic microcircuit that carries out simple but important steps in computation.

ABOUT FACE! A wire loop’s magnetic orientation reverses at the spike between I and II. D.A. Allwood et al./Science

This all-magnetic computing could offer numerous advantages over conventional electronics, says team leader Russell P.