nunotins14 said:hmm...i just said this cuz im using them at school
Nigel what you use, what's the "best" for you, that has PWM, ADC etc?
I use PIC's which are by far the most popular amongst hobbyists, but if you are learning 8051 it would make good sense to go with that. Generally you can do what you want with almost any micro-controller.
Once you've learnt 8051 at school, and you want to move to something more modern, I would suggest the Atmel AVR - which is probably second in popularity, but more similar to the 8051 than the PIC.