Dear Andy,
Hello, As I remember you from your postings you are so professional that you should not have a religious feeling toward any MCU.

The problem of shehryar is that he wants to produce a MCU based computer with least price. I even read in document of sirius(device he tries to make) that company goal is to produce half of "well under 100$" which means well under 50$. I know there are fast 51 derivatives (from cypress...?) but the question is can they give something even near 16MIPS well under 3$(wholesale ATMega128). About comparing flash memory, well he said that he is program is too big to be handled by one MCU, I know he may add external flash but it is not free. So comparing flash memory was quite right in his case. if he can use 2 MCU instead of 3 there will be considerable price cut. AVRs(ATmega family) also have such a vast peripherals that you only can dream of it if you want to use a cheap 51 derivative. I have programmed with 51 and believe me there are times that I really miss 51(interrupt priorities, DIV,...) but on the other hand AVRs have their own strengths. So if he wants to use 8bit MCU for lowering cost I think AVR will be more suited for him(lower price,more resources). If he wants to port linux and internet,... I think then only ARMs will do.
regards,