The energy-efficient nano computer is inspired by ideas about computing first put forward nearly 200 years ago.
Writing in the New Journal of Physics, the scientists say the machine would be built from nanometre sized components, just billionths of a metre across.
Chips based on the design could be used in places, such as car engines, where silicon can be too delicate, they said.
“What we are proposing is a new type of computing architecture that is only based on nano mechanical elements,” said Professor Robert Blick of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the authors of the paper.