Nanotech magnetic fields that replace traditional wiring in silicon chips could make computers up to 500 times more powerful, European scientists have claimed.

The University of Bath is to lead an international £555,000 three-year project to develop a system which could cut out the need for wiring in processor chips.

According to Moore's Law, computers double in power every 18 months or so as scientists and engineers develop ways to make silicon chips smaller.

But in the next few years they will hit a limit imposed by the need to use electric wiring, which weakens signals sent between computer components at high speed.

The Bath research project aims produce a way of carrying electric signals without the need for wiring.

The project, which involves four universities in the UK and a university and research centre in Belgium and France, will look at ways of producing microwave energy on a small scale by firing electrons into magnetic fields produced in semi-conductors that are only a few atoms wide and are layered with magnets.

The possibility of using the special semiconductors in this way was first pointed out by Dr Alain Nogaret, of the University of Bath's Department of Physics, in a scientific paper in 2005. 

The latest research is the first attempt to turn theory into practice. "The work could be very important for the creation of faster, more powerful comp uters," said Dr Nogaret.

"We can only go so far in getting more power from silicon chips by shrinking their components. Conventional technology is already reaching the physical limits of the materials it uses, such as copper wiring, and its evolution will come to a halt."

Dr Nogaret added that, if this research is successful, it could make computers with wireless semi-conductors a possibility within five or ten years from the end of the project.

"Computers could then be made anything from 200 to 500 times quicker and still be the same size," said Dr Nogaret.

"The research is not only practical, but beautiful in its theoretical simplicity, which is one of the big attractions for the physicists working on it."