[killermosquito]

Can you elaborate:

“If you have a PC and an internet connection you can get the very best of programmers (the Dragon) for a mere $50.”

[Mycroft Holmes]

What I meant to convey is that the high dollar programmer in the AVR world is $50 (really, add another $20 to be able to program several hundred different devices easily, a nit). There is a huge user community online and a wealth of information and examples of how to proceed.

If you want a single chip microprocessor that costs about a buck and is easy to program AVR is the answer.