The 8031 (or 8051) family of microcontrollers are cheap, versatile, easy to use and extremely powerful. They are found in everything from CD-ROM drives to microwave ovens.
This series of microcontrollers is especially hacker-friendly. Most of the standard members are available in 40 pin DIP packages which are very convenient to handle. Assemblers are freely available and compilers are generally inexpensive.
The recent addition of higher powered members to the 8031 family has made it possible to use 8031 compatible microcontrollers in designs that would otherwise require a 16-bit processor. This means that expertise in the 8031 will not become outdated any time soon.
8031s are exceptionally suited to embedded control applications whether that means keeping a CDROM drive's head centered over a track or feeding data to a knitting machine that needs to make 4,000 stitches a second. Their built-in serial port makes them extremely easy to use as interfaces between a PC and any custom hardware.
8031s start at under $2 apiece. There is simply no reason not to use them.
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