Atmel AVR series pwns Microchip PICs. Cooler, probably even cheaper.
Look no further. (Atmel also has some microcontrollers based on other famous architectures like 8051 and ARM). I recommend www.sparkfun.com for little kits to program the chips (also for PICs (which AVR pwns anyway) and tons of other microcontrollers). and do whatever, but you could always build your own (google "Atmel AVR ISP" for the most common programmer). Thanks, ~vsergeev On Fri, 2005-11-18 at 16:26 -0800, Tracy R Reed wrote: > Christian Seberino wrote: > > The Intel chips are for real work and very complicated. > > > > What is the simplest computer chip one can buy to learn > > and play with? > > Microcontroller. Definitely a microcontroller. I happen to like the PIC > micros but some people like Motorola and others like Intel. But PIC's > are cheap and easy to program and easy to interface with all kinds of > outside world gadgets. > > > > (e.g. Suppose you wanted to teach a class for high school > > students on the workings of a computer. A *butt* simple > > chip for this class would be a life saver to the kids.) > > I am working on a book review for "Silence On The Way" which I acquired > by way of the KPLUG raffle. Although about computer security it has some > pretty good explanations for the way logic works. I think it would be > cool to build a real working computer (a very simple one) out of relays > just as a demonstration. But to build something capable of real > calculation would require zillions. I'm thinking a simple adder and some > basic memory would probably suffice. > > -- > Tracy R Reed > http://copilotconsulting.com > > -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
