To give you an idea of the features on these little boards, here's a small excerpt from the full press release on each:

TiniPod

Hardware features on this new processor include 16 General Purpose Digital I/O lines, 1 RS-232 serial channel, and CAN Bus. The GPIO lines share functions with a 4 wire SPI Interface, 6 General Purpose Timers, 6 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) outputs.

The PWM outputs are hardware based and can be used to control 6 R/C Servos control, or grouped to control a 3-phase Brushless DC motors, 6 PMDC motors, or complementary drive for the H-bridge for 3 PMDC motors.

The multimode Timers can be used as 3 channels of Quadrature Decoders, or 3 channels Step and Direction counters. Individually they can also measure pulse width, time ultrasonic ranging pulses, or generate pulses, drive IR 40 KHz transmitters etc. They too can generate PWM outputs to drive another 6 R/C Servos.

Since the PWM and Timer modules are supported in set-and-forget hardware modules, the processor is free to perform higher level functions, such as acceleration-limited, velocity-profiled control of the moves of up to 12 RC Servos at the same time, and still have time left over for other tasks.

Similarly, using the Timer modules as Quadrature decoder inputs, the processor can implement PID and acceleration-limited, velocity-profiled control of the moves of 3 axes of motion control at the same time, and do other tasks such as communications via serial or CANBus.

The CANBus opens the possibility of distributed processing networks, particularly in automotive and industrial applications, so parallel hardware can be combined with parallel software.

Plug-a-Pod

Hardware features on this new processor include all the signals found on the similar family device, the new TiniPod›TM], on one dual row set of pins: 16 General Purpose Digital I/O lines, 1 RS-232 serial channel. The first GPIO lines share functions with a 4 wire SPI Interface, 6 General Purpose Timers, 6 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) outputs.

On the other dual row pins additional pins unique to the Plug-a-Pod›TM] include: 8-Ch 12-Bit A/D and an additional 8 GPIO.

The PWM outputs are hardware based and can be used to control 6 R/C Servos control, or grouped to control a 3-phase Brushless DC motors, 6 PMDC motors, or complementary drive for the H-bridge for 3 PMDC motors.

The multimode Timers can be used as 3 channels of Quadrature Decoders, or 3 channels Step and Direction counters. Individually they can also measure pulse width, time ultrasonic ranging pulses, or generate pulses, drive IR 40 KHz transmitters etc. They too can generate PWM outputs to drive another 6 R/C Servos.