Based on your comment, I did a little searching for the terms (single electron circuit) and found this interesting document. Maybe it's the kind of thing you're

Based on your comment, I did a little searching for the terms (single electron circuit) and found this interesting document. Maybe it's the kind of thing you're talking about: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/suppl/10.1142/p650/suppl_file/p650_chap01.pdf http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/suppl/10.1142/p650/suppl_... -- For a completely different portrayal of futuristic mechanical computers, check out Neal Stephenson's story The Diamond Age. It's set in an era of nanotech, and the computers are nanoscale clockwork computers.