> I am thinking about building a digitally controlled sinewave generator
> and after considering the obvious brute force, lots of components
> approach and after that briefly considering CD player DAC chip I decided
> that there must be an easier way. Is anyone here aware of a chip that
> would
> allow me to tell it a frequency of a sine wave to output, in 1Hz steps
> would
> be nice? It sould need no precision analog components.

You should use DDS
For up to 50kHz the MicroLinear   ML2036 is very easy to use.
Supply +/- 5v, one xtal and a PIC to talk to it over a simple 3 wire
interface... youre away and laughing.
Analog Devices make higher frequency DDS chips like AD9850.

There is a complete 40MHz generator published at
www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/LAb/9595/ddssg.html

Lance Allen
Uni of Auckland
New Zealand