You should look at the 80c51 family of microcontroller. Atmel and Phillips have one. They are 8-bit micro with timers, uart and IOs can be used either as inputs or outputs. There are also a couple of C compilers for that family (like Archimedes). The internal flash goes from 1K to 64K (for the TEMIC). Not powerful, but very not expensive (<5$). Look at the AVR family of ATMEL for power...
Sorry for my lazy reply of this morning, I had to go to work... Read a more intersting story in the following forum topic. These guys have more time to spend than I do.
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