Atmel's AVR microcontrollers utilise their famous RISC core operating at market leading speeds to make some of the best microcontroller products available. Designed with an architecture engineered for working with compiled C language programs, there is no longer a need for assembly language or a need for inefficient and unwieldy BASIC, so you can develop your project quicker without having to learn a new language.
Data Sheet: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-2486-8-bit-AVR-microcontroller-ATmega8_L_datasheet.pdf