I already use the PICs but find that the 8051 and 8052 allow a bit more
    flex in design although there are a number or external parts required.
    I have had another person doing the assembly programming for them and
    saw in my Jameco catalog that the PB pro used some parallax "8051" type
    code and was just hoping.  Guess I will just have to bite the bullet and
    get a Basic to assembly compiler or brush the dust off my assembly
    programming :-)

There's a FREE basic INTERPRETTER for the 8051 micros, and you can even
buy 8051s with the interpretter pre-built into the ROMs.  The 8051s have
been around for a long time and there's a LOT of freeware for them.

BillW