Where to buy cheap 8051 family SBC for hobbyist project

What country and price range ?

Are you going to use a C compiler or use assembly to program it ?

There are so many manufactures of 8051 chips and many manufactures of
boards with 8051s on them.

Google will list 100s of links.

good Luck

donald

Take a look at:
http://www.elexp.com /
which is "Electronics Express".. They have a "8051 SBC Trainer" for
$80. The quickie:
    *  Serially programmable (using PC HyperTerminal, no need for
external EPROM burner)
    * Dual serial ports
    * Integrated digital I/O (8 switches and 8 LEDs)
    * All ports accessible via terminal blocks
    * Onboard power supply
    * Connects to serial ports of PC
Search on 8051 on their home page bring up this and other stuff...

I've had good response / in-stock results / prices from them. YMMV

Regards, Terry King  ...On The Mediterranean in Carthage

www.digikey.com carries the ones from Cygnal  You get everything you need.