Microchip's Production Programming Service is available now, with prices as low as $0.09. Additional information and pricing may be found on Microchip's e-commerce website.

I've been interested in getting into microcontroller programming lately, and I've been looking at Microchips PIC16F and PIC18F series (especially the PIC16F), and also Atmel's ATtiny and ATmega ...

The flash-based PIC family of microcontrollers is another popular choice. Since they aren’t quite as beginner or user-friendly, setting up a programmer for them is not as straightforward.