Quote Originally Posted by Heckler View Post
These are the three PIC's that I keep on hand...

8pin - 12F683
14pin - 16F688
20pin - 16F690

They are all footprint compatible, are pretty much in the top of their category for the pin count, in terms of memory capacity, ram, eeprom.
check out the newer versions...

12f1822 instead of the 12f683
16f1828 instead of the 16f690

eg the latter 16f1828 has all the feature set of a 16f690, but for about the same price gets you better/more features (capacitive touch module, more timers, the option to set the +ve & -ve ADC references, faster internal osc, better IOC options, etc etc)