AVR

AVR is the name of Atmel's popular 8-bit microcontrollers. They have a lot of advantages compared to other microcontrollers :

• High speed (1MHz equals roughly 1 MIPS, the fastest AVRs can be run at 14MHz)
• Flash program memory (In my opinion a necessity today, especially for do it yourself projects)
• In-system programmable (Also a must)
• They are loaded with features like timers, UARTs, and the like. Also, you don't have to choose between a part with timers or an ADC or an UART, you can get both. For example, the biggest AVR yet, the mega106, has 128k (!) of flash, lots of I/O lines, 3 counters, 8 channel ADC, UART, SPI controller and more!
• Very nice and easy to use instruction set. Has everything you need for assembly coding, very well suited to compilers as well.
• Low price. At least here in Norway, the AVRs are very competivily priced, even judged against inferior controllers.

I use Atmel's AVR microcontrollers a lot, and I've made some web pages detailing different issues pertaining to them :

• Compiler comparison
• Parts comparison

In addition, I'm working on a program that will generate templates for programming the AVR in assembly. This program will initialize the timers, set up the watchdog, etc. No more forgetting to initialize the stack pointer... :-)