The Ardiuno is an awesome platform if you're new to the micro-controller world. IIRC, it's based on the ATmega168 and 328 (and 1280 for ArduinoMEGA). Here are

The Ardiuno is an awesome platform if you're new to the micro-controller world. IIRC, it's based on the ATmega168 and 328 (and 1280 for ArduinoMEGA). Here are a few clones: http://sanguino.cc/ http://sanguino.cc/ http://www.ladyada.net/make/boarduino/ http://www.ladyada.net/make/boarduino/ http://www.moderndevice.com/ http://www.moderndevice.com/ http://store.fundamentallogic.com/ecom/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=10 http://store.fundamentallogic.com/ecom/index.php?main_page=p... http://www.eauduino.org/ http://www.eauduino.org/ http://news.jeelabs.org/docs/jn4.html http://news.jeelabs.org/docs/jn4.html http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/dorkboard http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/dorkboard (with Serial<->USB http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/benito http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/benito) And more kickass 'duinos: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLilyPad http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLilyPad http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/blackwidow-10-p-613.html?cPath=27 http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/blackwidow-10-p-613.html?cP... I've tried building a few of these, and it's OK if you know what you're doing. (Plan to fry a few chips is you're a n00b.) Almost all chips don't have a bootloader yet, so you need to deal with that. For most of the stripped-down models, you also need a USB/Serial converter to load your bits. Debugging shoddy solder jobs is a pain (I'm terrible at anything surface-mount), so I usually just use an Diecimila for prototyping and deal with custom stripped-down boards later. The chips straight-up are something like $4, so if you're doing volume later on it's worth building your own. The Diecimila has some nice built-in features, like a reset button, onboard LEDs for testing, 12V power jack, female headers for jumper wires, etc. It's worth keeping a few of them around for rainy Saturdays. "Hey! I wonder if I can make my coffee pot a web server? Can it tweet when the brew is done? Hm..."