  Rapid development of information technologies originates from the exponential
increase in the density of information that can be processed, stored, and
transfer by the unit area of relevant devices. There is, however, a growing
amount of evidences that the progress achieved in this way approaches its
limits. Various novel ideas put forward to circumvent barriers ahead are
described. Particular attention is paid to those concepts which propose to
exploit electron or nuclear spins as the information carriers. Here,
ferromagnetic semiconductors of III-V or II-VI compounds containing a sizable
concentration of transition metals appear as outstanding spintronic materials.
