> Given the circumstances I agree. The Scenix looks like the ticket because
> it acts like a big fast PIC.

Pretty much... There are some extra features (such as being able to
read from program memory), and a few oddities with the memory
layout (I've never used the low-end PICs before, so I don't know
how comparable this is), but they are blindingly fast.

At present, you can get 18 and 28-pin packages, with 12 and 20 IO lines
respectively. They're coming out with 48/52 pin packages in the near
future, which will offer a whole load more IO, but will only be
available in smt packages for now. I believe these also have more
program ROM and registers.

Cheers,
Ben