James wrote:

> You might also want to look at National COP800.  They have
> some pretty interesting parts also.

  If the COP881 is representative of that series, then most of us can
happily forget that one!

  Reason?  Well, the programming algorithms are **TOTALLY** unavailable,
released only to third-party manufacturers on pain on non-disclosure
agreement, blah, blah, blah, etc.

  Why do you think PICs have become so popular all of a sudden?  Two
reasons actually, one is that they have been made available in small
quantity (i.e., less than 1000 pcs), and the other is the 16C84 with
the ability to be programmed with a dead simple circuit using publically
available algorithms.  The rest is history as they say.  In fact, the
decision by MicroChip to publically release the programming data for
the other devices has arguably been a prerequisite for the popularity as
a series.

  I submit that any other manufacturer fulfilling the same two criteria
would have enjoyed the same success (had they wanted to?).  Motorola for
example has the MC68HC05K2 which is just as easy to program, but simply
not available in the same sense as the PICs.

  I have a quantity of COP881CMHD-3 (Windowed EPROM) purchased second
hand, and they are since offered even cheaper (I won't offend you with
the price!).  As useful as the proverbial teats on a bull (I presume
this translates OK?) because support=0.0 .  Look at them you may, but
that's ALL I can do with them!

  Cheers,
Paul B.