I use the microcontrollers AT89C1051/2051/4051 manufactured by ATMEL.
It is programmed using a simple Basic language and is capable of controlling motors, communicating over networks, interfacing to sensors, and many other embedded control tasks.

Hardware moduls for electronic art:

- MIDI music interface:
        AT89C2051 microcontroller
        8-bit input/output port
        I2C Bus Master
        MIDI-IN, MIDI-OUT port

- Input-Output Expander:
       2x8-bit input/output port
       4x analog inputs
       I2C Bus

- PC Mouse interface:
       mouse control via parallel or I2C port

- Servo interface:
       8x servo motor control via I2C bus

- Sound Chip interface:
      16 sec sound record/playback

- DTMF Receiver interface:
      remote control via telephone call or PC sound

- mini robot control board:
     AT89C2051 microcontroller
     2x motor driver
     2x infrared sensor
     2x light sensor
     1x microphone
     1x sound output

- speech recognition board:
     Voice Direct 364 module from Sensory, Inc.