A team of researchers from Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, the Czech Institute of Physics, the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham announced the demonstration of an effect, called Coulomb Blockade Anisotropic Magnetoresistance (‘CBAMR’). CBAMR allows voltage control of this magnetoresitive effect and therefore the development of non-volatile logic circuits. Although initially CBAMR device works only at low temperatures the research team has shown that CBAMR is a generic effect that can be extended to higher temperatures. The work has established the large magnitude of the CBAMR effect and the relationship between this novel phenomenon, discovered only within the last year, and the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) effect. To realize Tbit/in2 densities, the bit sizes and sensor sizes must be of the order of 10 nanometers. In a parallel development, a team from Hitachi and Cambridge University also announced the development of the first silicon-technology embodiment of the effect called Extraordinary Magnetoresistance (EMR). This is a promising candidate for read-head sensors which do not have the problem of magnetic noise. Dr David Williams, Laboratory Manager and Senior Researcher at Hitachi’s Cambridge Laboratory said, “Given the sheer size of the global hard disk drive market and its growth potential this is an important development that could lead to new read back sensor technology. This is an exciting breakthrough that underlines the team’s expertise in combining nanotechnology and spintronics to achieve rapid progress in this field.”