Date:       1995
From:       Gary Hinkle
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject:    Re: Which microcontroller do you recommend?

Go with the PIC! I have used 8051, 6303, and HC11 families
until I discovered the PIC. You can get complete development
tools including programmer, and simulator for under $200 and it
is VERY easy to program. The basic PIC devices have 512-2K
bytes of EPROM, available in uV or OTP, and run up to 20MHz.
These parts are VERY fast as RISC-like architecture executes
most instructions in 1 cycle. Low end devices are in $3-8
range. Disadvantages are small amount of SRAM (32-84 bytes) and
lack of peripherals. However the PIC family has many choices
with more RAM, A/D, UART, timers, etc... all with the Harvard
architecture and simple instruction set. Definitely look at the
PIC, as this is one of the hottest products on the market.