Arduino uses an AVR microcontroller, and is programmed in C++. The main advantage over PIC, as I understand it, is that Arduino has been wrapped in many layers of fluffy padding, to make it more accessible to beginners. Those looking to "roll your own" can buy an AVR chip with Arduino bootloader sans the surrounding hardware for about $5 and still use the same code. I don't know what a plain AVR chip goes for.
The Arduino does have a 3.3v signal that can be used with sensors or ICs that expect 3.3v supply, but the digital output pins are always referenced to 5v as far as I know. It would be nice if I could come up with a way to use the full 5v resolution and then step it down to 2.7v reference in analog, but practically speaking, I seem to have sub-1-amp resolution even going between 0 and 2.7 volts natively, so I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
How is a PIC chip programmed? Native assembly, or high-level like C? Are there pre-constructed PIC packages that include support hardware like a regulated supply and so forth, or is that all DIY?
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