Abstract: Reading unit for a shift register according to the thin magnetic layer technology. For reading, the magnetoresistance effect is used. According to the invention, an electrical conductor, which overhangs the propagation channel is interrupted at the central point of the reading unit and a hard magnetic layer whose magnetization is directed perpendicularly to the easy axis of the propagation channel is deposited at that point. That layer tends to align the magnetization of the channel with its own magnetization and makes it possible, in co-operation with an energizing conductor, to obtain a difference in the resistance of the reading unit between the two states of a digital data item.