It was the original AT90S8515 that really grabbed my interest and launched me into embedded programming (when I was about 15 years old). Prior to that I was usi

It was the original AT90S8515 that really grabbed my interest and launched me into embedded programming (when I was about 15 years old). Prior to that I was using the Basic Stamp, with it's incredibly limited and slow instruction set (yet a ridiculously high price). Then I switched to seemingly impressive BasicX with a far more powerful instruction set, though still Basic. That's when I realized the BasicX was really just an AT90S8515 with an interpreter so I learned C and programmed it directly at just a few dollars per chip -- it changed everything for me! Not only did I have the most powerful MCU I had ever used, but it was also cheap enough to leave in projects.