The Atmel AVR Series Microcontroller
Microcontrollers are small computers designed for interacting with the real world. Get a couple sensors working, use that information to control a motor, flash a an LED, read out on a LCD panel. You are truly limited only by your imagination. You need to acquire a couple skills - electronics and programming - and you're off and running.I have been using the AVR's for about 8 months and I have enjoyed the relationship. I am a convert from the Motorola 68HC11/12 school (pretty much the standard in the hobby robotics world). I needed a platform where I could build simple modules that didn't need a costly development board. The choices seemed to be the PICs or Atmel. I heard complaints about the PICs and the AVR seemed to be more attuned to C software so away I went.
The AVR series ranges from 8 pin, 1K flash to 64 pin TQFP 128K flash versions. They all work more-or-less the same; the larger versions have more and more complex features. You can get an operating, useful AVR up and running for less than $5. I find the development community to be newer and smaller but less fragmented. It is far friendlier for the newbie. The entry price is under $100 and good quality development software is free.Here are the links you need to get going:
www.atmel.com/atmel/products/prod23.htmA few topics of interest:
www.avrfreaks.net
www.digikey.com (to buy parts)
A sample device summary data sheet (AVR128, pdf format)
My ATMEGA128 Development Board
Getting Started with the AVRPower Consumption DiscussionGood luck with your projects!
Getting GCC Operational with the ATMEGA128.
Using GCC with external RAM
Revised Header Files allowing the Use of the Direct Assignment Operator for I/O Registers
ucOS-II with the ATMEGA 103/128 in single chip modeDon Carveth