MCU recomendation?

[d houlton x0710]

Can someone who knows a bit more than I do about MCUs reccomend one and a
development board to use?

I'm new to this and I'm finding it near impossible to decide what chip/board
I should be looking at.  I'm learning as I go, but I don't even know enough
where to start.

I definitely want one that I can get a C compiler for.  I think the Hitachi
might be good as their dev. kits come with one (or two).  Cost of course is
an issue.  The Hitachi boards start around $150 complete with C compiler,
power supply, board, etc..  I figure I can afford up to $250.  Maybe $300
if there's a strong case for that particular set-up.

My application is a controller for a water injection system.  I'll want to 
read input from items like a MAP and/or MAF sensors, rpm from the coil, 
duty cycle and pulse width from an injector.  Maybe some others later on 
as well.  I plan to use this as a learning experience to do bigger and
more complex things so I want a system with some expansion potential.

Some of the things I want to do is control (pulse) a solenoid for the water
injection similar to how the progressive nitrous controllers do.  And
possibly controlling an additional fuel injector or two.  Also, drive an
LCD showing the duty cycle and pulse width.

There are bazillions of chips just from Hitachi.  Each slightly different
as to what's on it.  What features should I be looking for for this kind 
of work?  I do want a Flash controller BTW just because they look easier
to program/re-program.

A/D converters?  8-bit?  10-bit?  How many channels?
Comparators?  Are these used in place of an A/D converter?
D/A?  Even needed?

Watchdog timers?
I/O ?
Bus?  CAN, SCI, IrDA ?

8-bit?
16-bit?
32-bit?
64-bit?
Speeds from 12 MHz to several hundred MHz

How much speed and bandwidth is nice to have vs. rediculously too much for
what I'm doing?  I mean this could probably be done with a PIC.

My app is a 4cyl with 6K redline, but I'd like it to work up to 8 cyl and
7K or 8K rpm.

Rough memory estimate?  64K?  256K?  Memory seems to go up with bus width
and speed.  I'd rather wait until I get a little bit more experience and
understanding before trying to interface external memory chips.

Knowing specs like resistance and amperage of my solenoid coils, how do I
figure out if the MCU can control it directly or if I need external 
transistors to do it?

I actually purchased an Atmel board over a year ago to do this before I was
really ready with anything else, but now that I'm finally back to it, I 
really want to work with a C compilier instead of assembly.

The software I'll figure out on my own as I go.  I just need help selecting
the right hardware to start with.

Any help or advice is welcome.  It's painfully obvious I think that I'm
not a hardware guy.  Even book references would be welcome although most
of them are probably written like a college text book.  Something like a
"MCU's and Embedded Systems Programming for Dummy's" is what I need.


thanks much,
--Dan
houlster at inficad.com