Be aware of the Philips "LPC" (low pin count) family of cpus.
The 87LPC764 (and its siblings) gives many low end PICs a run for their
money.

Notable shortcomings are -

- OTP eprom - not flash [silly]
- NO user EEROM [stupid].
- Not too much else wrong.

Accelerated 8051 with /6 clock.
Free C compilers available due to vast body of 8051 code "out there"

Pricing is competitive - around $US1.50 in tube quantities down to $US1.20
ish in 1000's.

Good entry level emulator available for $NZ900, $US399
[[Disclaimer: Friends of mine wrote the software for the emulator for
Philips so I may be considered to be very very slightly non-impartial :-) ]]

Some details below from PDF data sheet.

Quite an act to beat at the price.


      Russell McMahon
_____________________________

>From other worlds - www.easttimor.com
                                www.sudan.com

What can one man* do?
Help the hungry at no cost to yourself!
at  http://www.thehungersite.com/

(* - or woman, child or internet enabled intelligent entity :-))



=============================

FEATURES
ð An accelerated 80C51 CPU provides instruction cycle times of
300ö600 ns for all instructions except multiply and divide when
executing at 20 MHz.

Execution at up to 20 MHz when
V DD = 4.5 V to 6.0 V, 10 MHz when V DD = 2.7 V to 4.5 V.
ð 2.7 V to 6.0 V operating range for digital functions.
ð 4 K bytes EPROM code memory.
ð 128 byte RAM data memory.
ð 32-byte customer code EPROM allows serialization of devices,
storage of setup parameters, etc.
ð Two 16-bit counter/timers. Each timer may be configured to toggle
a port output upon timer overflow.
[PWM with a little interupt software]
ð Two analog comparators.
ð Full duplex UART.
ð I 2 C communication port.
ð Eight keypad interrupt inputs, plus two additional external interrupt
inputs.
ð Four interrupt priority levels.
ð Watchdog timer with separate on-chip oscillator, requiring no
external components. The watchdog timeout time is selectable
from 8 values.
ð Active low reset. On-chip power-on reset allows operation with no
external reset components.
ð Low voltage reset. One of two preset low voltage levels may be
selected to allow a graceful system shutdown when power fails.
May optionally be configured as an interrupt.
ð Oscillator Fail Detect. The watchdog timer has a separate fully
on-chip oscillator, allowing it to perform an oscillator fail detect
function.
ð Configurable on-chip oscillator with frequency range and RC
oscillator options (selected by user programmed EPROM bits).
The RC oscillator option allows operation with no external
oscillator components.
ð Programmable port output configuration options:
quasi-bidirectional, open drain, push-pull, input-only.
ð Selectable Schmitt trigger port inputs.
ð LED drive capability (20 mA) on all port pins.
ð Controlled slew rate port outputs to reduce EMI. Outputs have
approximately 10 ns minimum ramp times.
ð 15 I/O pins minimum. Up to 18 I/O pins using on-chip oscillator
and reset options.
ð Only power and ground connections are required to operate the
87LPC764 when fully on-chip oscillator and reset options are
selected.
ð Serial EPROM programming allows simple in-circuit production
coding. Two EPROM security bits prevent reading of sensitive
application programs.
ð Idle and Power Down reduced power modes. Improved wakeup
from Power Down mode (a low interrupt input starts execution).
Typical Power Down current is 1 mA.
ð 20-pin DIP and SO packages.