I like microchips controllers for the following reasons:

1. They are packed with so many peripherals which are free when you compare prices to 8051.

2. they come in various packages to suit your needs, 8pin or 18 or 28 or 40 or more for the new 32mb devices that will come soon.

3. there is extensive application notes, code libraries, code examples , design examples, math routines, almost anything you want can be found on the web.

4. The only thing i'm not satisfied with is a c compiler for the pic family, all compilers i've seen so far are cheap kids toys, from hitech to ccs. Wish keil would make a pic version of their compiler.