They're both from single-source manufacturers! 805x devices have many, Many suppliers, and, while they're somewhat different from one manufacturer to the next, they all share a common architecture and instruction set.

Once there's a second and third manufacturer producing AVR's, it might be worth considering, despite the fact the primary AVR manufacturer is <yechh> Atmel. In the meantime, however, I'd leave 'em alone.

If he's going to spend some $$$ on an already-assembled product, despite its cost (the modern 805x I mentioned before costs less than $2) perhaps he should focus on those PC-104's which, though they're not cheap) pretend to be IBM-PC-clones. He's got experience with those.

RE