Moore's Law describes the reputed trend in computing hardware that's held true ever since integrated circuits were created in 1958.

Based on this law, every year and a half, new technology has doubled the number of transistors that fit on the same-sized integrated circuit board.

That's why, 50 years later, computers that once filled buildings now fit into the palm of the hand.

But a University of Pittsburgh physicist has demonstrated new technology that could increase computer storage and processing power by a factor of 1,000 with an entirely new system that does not involve silicon chips.

Jeremy Levy has reduced computer technology to nanoscale size. In a study published yesterday in Science, he created a transistor that is only 2 nanometers, which approaches the atomic scale.

With further development, the single technology could be used to shrink the size of computing power and storage. Current technologies require two methods -- silicon chips and magnetic data storage systems.

Dr. Levy said the electronics of silicon chips are approaching their physical limits. So new technologies will be necessary if the reduction trend first described by Intel cofounder Gordon E. Moore, in 1965, is to continue.

Dr. Levy's technology, inspired by the child's toy Etch A Sketch, shows promise.

His system uses two layers, one made of a crystal of strontium titanate with another layer of lanthanum aluminate. Both are insulators and the aluminate is only atoms thick.

Electrical charges can flow between the layers. Atop the layer an atomic microscope can draw lines, similar to an Etch A Sketch, to create electrical circuitry that is about five atoms wide. The eventual hope is that only one electron is needed to store one bit of information or operate the transistor. The electron is the lowest unit of charge.

The technology offers many potential advantages.

The common atomic microscope -- rather than a building full of high-tech equipment necessary to make silicon chips -- can draw the circuitry onto the surface of the material and erase them with reverse voltage or light. That means different processing circuits or memory can be created and erased on the chip depending on what functions are desired.

"To take a blank sheet and write in the electronic function is accomplishment enough," said Evelyn Hu, a physicist with Harvard University's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "But to do that, then erase it and create a completely different function is truly powerful.

"They have laid the groundwork for a new technology that can take on many forms," Dr. Hu said.

Another advantage is reducing memory and processing technologies by a factor of 1,000, which means current laptops could fit on your pinky's fingernail.

Yet another advantage is the ability to draw a line that connects dots that serve as transistors -- the gates whose two possible states, either on or off, provide the electrical building blocks of computers. The smaller the transistor, the more powerful the computer can become.

Dr. Levy fashioned a transistor called a SketchFET that is only 2 nanometers wide. Consider that the most advanced silicon transistor currently available measures 45 nanometers. A human hair is about 100,000 nanometers wide.

"A lot of development needs to take place to be a competitive technology," Dr. Levy said. "It was an important demonstration to make things this small and prove that we can do this. But whether it is feasible depends on many details."

Remaining issues include reducing power consumption to prevent heat buildup. That's feasible if only a few electrons, or even one electron, are needed to operate each transistor.

Dr. Levy's previous study demonstrated how the system could be used for data storage. The latest shows how it can be used to make nanoscale electrical circuitry, including nanoscale transistors.

Dr. Levy got the Etch A Sketch idea during a visit to the University of Augsburg in Germany, where the Science paper's coauthors, Jochen Mannhart and his student Stefan Thiel, showed him how the entire interface could be switched between conducting and insulating states.

Dr. Levy took that idea and adapted it to nanoscale dimensions with help from his student and coauthor, Cheng Cen.