Under the moniker of P89LPC900, Philips have introduced an entirely new family of 80C51 successors that have a number of pins ranging from 8 to 80 and are all based on an (in-system-programmable) flash memory. An important characteristic of the controller is that despite a large number of new features it is still fully compatible with the 80C51.That the 80C51-based controllers are extremely popular is nothing new, certainly when considering the large number of designs that have appeared in this magazine over the years. The reason may well be the fact that the tools (both hardware and software) that are available for this controller are very affordable and there is an enormous amount of information readily available. In addition, a very active forum provides answers to many questions.