H.L. Mencken said, "there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong"

The microcontroller you really want has the most features you plan to use and the fewest that will get in your way. Even people who've worked with lots of different boards have to spend time thinking about that.

There are two easy ways to make a bad choice though:

• Pick the one that's cheapest.
• Pick the one that's newest/fastest/biggest.

Those boards have already made serious trade-offs to get where they are, and they have corresponding limits. If you don't know what the limits are, you don't know if they'll get in your way.

Only use the -est of something when you know you want that more than anything else.

Remember: a feature only makes a board better if you actually use it!

On the next page is information to assist in making informed choices when it comes to microcontrollers.