Okay, I've been researching a little, and think the 16F88 would be a good first microcontroller. I have absolutely no experience with these devices, so please excuse my ignorance. There were several factors that influenced my choice, being cost, support components, simplistic instruction set (only 36 opcodes?), PWM, ADC, built in clock. Just seems to most versitile and easiest to learn on.
Anyway, downloaded the data sheet (226 pages), but only thumbed through it so far.
Now, first question, can you W/R external memory devices directly with a PIC? I'm sure that it will be a while before reach the internal limits, but can see running out easy doing sounds samples or large data tables.
I learned assembler on the 6502, so figure I'm good enough to get started. Yeah, I know that I'll need to learn the ports, registers, memory usage, and so on. Been a while, but like riding a bike.
Programmers... I want to go USB (got ports on the front of my PC). I've looked at several schematics, but not seeing anything I liked yet. Basically, looking for a real basic stuff a PIC in to the socket, shove it into the USB, write the program. Kits weren't looking too good, little pricey. Why some require firmware, others don't, I have no idea yet. Also seem to require specific programs, so I'd be stuck using software I may not like. Need to do more resarch on this.
Basically wondering if a 16F88 is a good choice for a beginner, and a few suggestion on a assembler/simulator/burner software package, and maybe a reasonable USB programmer.