I just spotted this write-up on hackaday so I thought I would share it here since someone might find it useful. TI just released a new microcontroller dev kit that comes in at a whopping $4.30.. That includes two microcontrollers, a testing/programming board, IDE and programming cable.. Pretty dang cheap. As you would expect the specs of these things are not all that great, but for a simple project they might do the trick... And for the price, sheesh, why not?? Cheaper than a trip to Starbucks :)
http://hackaday.com/2010/06/22/ti-makes-a-big-bid-for-the-hobby-market/#more-25208
Interesting. I will order one to try, if they ever become available again. (they are heavily backordered now)
They seem a good replacement for my PICs. 16 bits, 16 MIPS, for a really cheap price.
Potul
It's a pitty there is not MSP430 with UART compatible with this development board..... I mainly use uC for MIDI applications....