unless you wanted to, say, put -everything- onto another microcontroller. in which case you would try to do the PWM on the attiny2313 and have that controlled via i2c.
Exactly. 
Makes the library controlling it far simpler and frees up timers.
Was it you who hit a snag with the timers and delay()?
and the attiny2313 only has 2 timers by the way, whereas the atmega168 has 3, so you'd have to do the PWM in software which means tons of fun debugging that and i2c communication at the same time. especially difficult when the user wants 8-bit PWM is at >20khz!
Well the ATtiny2313 was a example. There are enough different chips to fill any need. 
also, where are you getting an attiny2313 for $1.45 in qty 1? and a 8-pos DIP switch for $0.75 in qty 1?
Futurlec.
Cheap shipping too.
In quantities of 100 the prices are $1.05 and $0.60 respectively.[/quote]