Some tasks are too complex to be implemented solely with discrete components but not really computing-intensive: an emergency light needs to flash a LED with a given light pattern, or sensor data needs to be read and written to SD Card, or based on some input, different outputs need to be controlled - you get the idea.
The ATTiny family of microcontrollers is perfect for this. They are small (come in standard DIP housings), provide GPIOs and can do most of what their bigger brothers can do to - just not so fast, and with (much) less available memory.
*ATTiny are so tiny they don’t come with USB-to-Serial functionality or any other means of connecting them to a PC. In order to upload firmware, you need to plug them into a programmer. That’s a board with the missing USB functionality.
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(content created Mar 23, 2024)